"It needs to be smooth.." Ex-Indian batting coach Vikram Rathour on Team India's transition phase
(Courtesy : BCCI)
Vikram Rathour also feels the Zimbabwe tour has shown some glimpes of future India T20I squad.
Former Indian batting coach Vikram Rathour has expressed his thoughts on the transition Indian cricket will go through under the new head coach, Gautam Gambhir.
After winning the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 in June, head coach Rahul Dravid and his support staff’s tenure with the Indian cricket team came to an end. Veteran Indian cricketers Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Ravindra Jadeja also announced their T20I retirements after lifting the ICC T20 World Cup.
With Kohli, Rohit, and Jadeja announcing their T20I retirements, Indian young talents had a great chance to impress BCCI selectors in the recently concluded Zimbabwe T20I series.
Never going to be easy to replace Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma: Rathour
A young Indian side crushed the hosts Zimbabwe 4-1 in the five-match T20I series, which concluded on July 14. The exciting series saw some Indian Premier League stars fighting hard to earn vacant spots permanently in the shortest format.
Youngster Abhishek Sharma smashed his maiden T20I during the second T20I. Whereas, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, and Sanju Samson also had a great run with the bat. In the bowling department, Mukesh Kumar Avesh Khan and off-spinner Washington Sundar had a brilliant run in the series.
However, former India batting coach Vikram Rathour said that it will be tough for a player to replace Rohit and Virat in the squad. Rathour further added that the recently concluded Zimbabwe T20I series showcased some glimpses of what the team will look like in the shortest format.
“It is never going to be easy to replace people of Rohit and Virat’s calibre. 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,” Rathour told PTI.
Won’t be too concerned: Former batting coach Rathour on transition
Vikram Rathour, one of the key members of Indian support staff during Rahul Dravid’s stint as head coach, isn’t concerned about the transition in Indian Cricket Team.
Rathour further said that the only thing management needs to take care of is handling the transition in a smooth and controlled manner.
“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,” he added.
“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.
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