Shastri defends Virat, says his work ethic as good as any

Defending an under-fire Virat Kohli, Indian cricket Team Director Ravi Shastri today said the swashbuckling batsman's ordinary run in the World Cup had nothing to do with his actress-girlfriend Anushka Sharma's presence and to call it that is "utter nonsense".
"If it was so, Virat wouldn't have got 700 runs and smashed four centuries in Tests in Australia. His work ethics is as good as any I have seen. His heart beats for India. It's a pedigree you don't see often. And to tell you the truth, he isn't a finished article yet," Shastri told PTI.
Shastri found much to praise in Kohli's revival after a disastrous England tour last year when he constantly fell to Jimmy Anderson and company.

Kohli showed that, "it's not the size of the dog in fight that matters. It's the fight in dog that counts," Shastri said.
Shastri also lavished praise on skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni saying that the wicket-keeper batsman will only get better from here on.
"He would only get better now that he has retired from Test cricket. He would be fitter and would have time to work on his batting. He would still have a lot of time to torture bowlers around the world," he said.
Shastri, a former India captain, said losing the toss in the semi-final against Australia hurt the Indian team.

While praising the eventual champions and terming them as "the best side in the tournament", Shastri still believed that the only team which Australia feared could beat them was India.