India batting coach Vikram Rathour confirms reapplying for position; wants team to execute plans better in T20

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Abu Dhabi, November 2: India’s batting coach Vikram Rathour on Tuesday (November 2) confirmed that he has re-applied for the position as he feels there is a lot of work still left to be done.

Rathour is the only one from the current support staff, who is keen on a second stint as head coach Ravi Shastri, bowling coach Bharath Arun and fielding coach R Sridhar have decided to move on.

"Going forward, I have already applied for the batting coach's job and if I get the job, there is going to be a lot of work to be done. I will take it as it goes," Rathour said at the pre-match press conference ahead of India’s match against Afghanistan in the ICC T20 World Cup 2021.

Rathour took over as the India batting coach from former India batsman Sanjay Bangar in 2019 and his appointment was till the end of the 2021 T20 World Cup.

Under Rathour as the batting coach, India won a historic Test series in Australia and also thrashed England on their home soil earlier this year.

The 52-year-old Jalandhar-born Rathour played six Tests and seven ODIs for India, with modest returns of 131 and 193 runs respectively.

The right-handed batsman played 146 first-class matches and amassed 11,473 runs from them.

Rathour stressed that it was a great experience to work with skipper Virat Kohli and his boys in the Indian dressing room.

"I thought this PC was for the World Cup. But anyways I can answer this question. So, the experience (with the Indian team) has been great.

"It has been a great learning experience. It is great to work with a team of such highly motivated and skilful players, so it has been a good experience," he added.

Rathour also said the decision to open with Ishan Kishan in place of Rohit Sharma against New Zealand made sense tactically and it was the entire team management that took the call.

“How things went was that Suryakumar Yadav was having back spasms the previous night so he was ruled out of the game against New Zealand.

“The person coming in was Ishan and he has done well as an opener. The whole management took the call and Rohit is part of that group.

“He was part of that discussion, having Ishan as an opener tactically made sense. We did not want many left-handers in the late middle-order," said Rathour.

On the lack of a finisher in the team, Rathour said: “We have Ravindra Jadeja in the team as well who I think is a fabulous finisher. Players like Suryakumar Yadav, and Virat have done well for us in the past. We have enough players who can do the job, I do not see any issue.

“When you pick the team for World Cup, you have a slight restriction where you can pick just 15. That's the way it is. I think we have enough in our batting, we have just not been able to execute our plans."

When asked about whether IPL was good practice for the ongoing tournament, Rathour said: "Any preparation is good preparation. IPL does provide you with a platform where you compete against the top cricketers in the world. So yes, it was a good platform to practice. I do not see any issue with this.

“Players got loads of games, what happened in the past two games was that we were not able to execute our plans the way we wanted to and that has been our issue."

Talking about the bowling scheme of things, Rathour said: "Execution can be better, secondly, the wicket definitely eases up when you are bowling second and thirdly, we did not put up enough runs on the board to create that pressure. Once you are defending just 110, it gets easier for the team batting second.

“We are having lots of planning where bowlers are involved, our execution can be better. Of course, Afghanistan is a good team, they have done well. I think the challenge would be their spinners. If we can bat to our potential, as I said we have skillful players. If we play to our potential, we will do well," he added.