New Delhi: Vikram Rathour insists Virat Kohli didn’t have any technical flaw during his off-form after the 2019 World Cup and he needed only reassurance and confidence to get back to his heavy run-scoring ways.
Rathour was part of the coaching staff of the Indian team that won the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean last month. He has since left his position and had to frequently answer questions regarding Kohli’s poor form to which he had always replied that it is just a passing phase for the star batter.
“There were no technical issues that we worked on specifically during this phase. The constant messaging to him was to keep working hard and believe in his methods. Eventually he came back stronger and an even better player,” he told PTI.
Along with head coach Rahul Dravid, who has also left his job, Rathour formed a stable partnership that brought in a fresh batting approach within the T20I team that helped them win the World Cup
“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.
“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,” he said.
With the retirements of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja from T2OIs, there is bound to be a void in the team. But Rathour believes India have their bases covered with olenty of talented players though the team should aim for a gradual transition under new coach Gautam Gambhir.
“It is never going to be easy to replace people of Rohit and Virat’s calibre. The recently-concluded series against Zimbabwe (on Sunday) 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 said.
The former selector said India have a cupboard full of talented players and is not worried about any hiccups in transition.
“I won’t be too concerned about it. 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 said.
As Rohit and Kohli still would play in Tests and ODIs for at least a couple of years, the newer lot will get ample time to adapt to the longer formats too, he felt.
“I am hoping that by then, players like Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant, Yashasavi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel to name a few, would establish themselves and will make the transition smooth.
“In ODIs also, we have experienced players like Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya to take over,” Rathour said, adding that Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal would be the backbone of the Indian team in the future.
Vikram Rathour was part of the coaching staff of the Indian team that won the T20 World Cup last month. Sports Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
