Shastri won't mind Kohli sledging England players in 3rd Test, says Nasser Hussain

Former England captain Nasser hailed Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri, saying the partnership between the Indian captain and the head coach is one of the main reasons behind the success of the team.

Ahead of the third Test, Hussain said Shastri would never stop Kohli from going after England's best cricketer like James Anderson.

"Ravi Shastri, as a coach, will just let Kohli go. He won't mind seeing him exchanging words with Anderson or signalling from the balcony to try to get the players off for bad light. It is the captain who is very much in charge," Hussain wrote in his column for the Daily Mail.

India are coming off a superb 151-run victory in the second Test at Lord's and the third Test is scheduled to be played at Headingley, Leeds, starting on Wednesday (Aug. 25).

Kohli and Anderson were involved in a verbal altercation during India's second innings at Lord's. While the England fast bowler appeared to have sledged Kohli first, the Indian skipper was heard on the stump mic giving it back to Anderson. Their duel was only one of the many verbal fights in the Lord's Test, which turned out to be a very intense game between the two sides.

"What Kohli in particular represents is modern-day India, the one that won't be pushed around. Even though umpires might like to remind him occasionally that he doesn't run the game," Hussain said.

Meanwhile, Hussain also credited Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane and limited-overs vice-captain Rohit Sharma for their continuous support for Kohli and his aggressive style of playing cricket.

"More significant, perhaps, are the senior players Kohli has beside him. Rohit Sharma was right there when he was complaining about the light, and both he and Rahane are integral to the tactics of India. Rohit might come across as a calm, slow heartbeat sort of guy but he is very driven to succeed too.

Captains can't tick every box and Kohli can follow the ball a bit in the field. Sometimes he will do something and you will think, "What is he doing that for?" That's when he will look to his lieutenants for assistance," he added.

Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara have been under the scanner for a long time now. In a virtual press conference on Monday, Rahane said he was satisfied that he and Pujara were able to contribute to India's win at Lord's.

"It was really satisfying. I always believe in contributions to the team. For me, I always think about the team so that contribution of 61 or 62 was really important. It was all about hanging in there. The communication was all about thinking about small targets and then build it from there. We always talk about Cheteshwar, he plays slow, but that innings was really important for us. He batted 200-plus balls, even though he got just 46 [45] runs, I think those 200 balls were really important for us.

We back each other. He told me to back my game. I told him to back his own game, whatever methods he wants to go with. I thought the communication was very good. We just wanted to build one good partnership. We knew 170-180 would have been a very good score on that wicket," added Rahane.