Rathour on India’s transition: Needs to be done gradually, in a controlled manner

Vikram Rathour, India’s batting coach till the end of the T20 World Cup 2024, isn’t “too concerned” about the period of transition the team is heading towards, but wants the team management to handle it “in a controlled manner”.

India’s next series is in Sri Lanka, where they will play three T20Is and three ODIs, and the T20I team will definitely be a new one, with Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja having retired after India beat South Africa to win the T20 World Cup trophy in Barbados last month.

“It is never going to be easy to replace people of Rohit and Virat’s calibre,” Rathour told PTI. “The recently-concluded [T20I] series against Zimbabwe gave us some glimpse into how the T20 team will look like in future. But we still have a few years in Test and ODI cricket to get to that point.”

India won that series 4-1 with Shubman Gill at the helm and only three members of the World Cup squad – Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube and Yashasvi Jaiswal – in the ranks, that too only for the last three games. The team was coached by VVS Laxman, who was in charge in an interim capacity, with Gautam Gambhir, the long-term replacement for Rahul Dravid, set to move into the position starting with the Sri Lanka tour. His team of coaches has not been named yet.

“I won’t be too concerned about it [the transition],” Rathour said. “We have a lot of depth in Indian cricket. There are lots of very talented and skilful players who are coming through the system. The only thing we need to make sure is the transition is done in a controlled manner. It needs to be gradual.”

Rathour feels that with so many young players coming through, India have the men they need to form the core of the side, across formats, for the next decade.

“I am hoping that by then, players like Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, to name a few, would establish themselves and will make the transition smooth,” he said. “In ODIs also, we have experienced players like Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya to take over.

“There are many exciting players coming through but these two [Gill and Jaiswal] are equipped to play all three formats for a long time. They are going to be the backbone of Indian batting in years to come.”

Rathour: Rinku Singh ‘can develop into a Test cricketer’

One of the players to have moved up the ladder in the past two seasons is Rinku Singh, who has played two ODIs and 20 T20Is, but can’t be called a regular in the national side yet. He is a fantastic finisher in short-format cricket, but also averages 54.70 after 69 first-class innings.

“When I see him bat in nets, I can’t find any technical reasons why Rinku cannot be a successful Test batter,” Rathour said. “I understand he has made his name as a terrific finisher in T20 cricket but if you look at his first-class record, he is averaging in high 50s.

“He is also blessed with a very calm temperament. So all these factors indicate that if given an opportunity, he can develop into a Test cricketer.”

Dravid ‘gives you lots of space to work’

Rathour formed a strong partnership with Dravid in the India backroom. Their relationship, in fact, goes back to the mid-1990s, when they made their international debuts around the same time – ditto for Paras Mhambrey, the bowling coach in the Dravid-led set-up.

“Rahul is the best coach that I have worked with, who gives you lots of space to work, is open to suggestions and will provide you an honest feedback,” Rathour said. “One of the first discussions we had was about changing the batting template in T20 cricket. We agreed that we needed to bring in more intent and aggression in our batting approach.”

Rathour said a case in point was that of Axar Patel, who fixed their problem of a decent batting option at No. 8. “That made a massive difference and gave the batters in top order lot more freedom to bat.”