Indian cricket has lot of depth but transition should be gradual: Vikram Rathour

New Delhi: Outgoing batting coach Vikram Rathour knows that a tough transition period awaits India in the near future but having worked with the available talent pool, he feels the side is well-equipped to handle the phase provided it unfolds in a “controlled and gradual manner”.

While Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma will still play ODIs and Tests for now, India will have to grapple with the transition phase in another couple of years when they move towards the last phase of their respective careers?

“It is never going to be easy to replace people of Rohit and Virat’s calibre,” Rathour, also a former selector, told PTI in an exclusive interview.

“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,” said one of the key members of Rahul Dravid’s coaching team.

Having served as both national selector and one of the coaches of the senior team, Rathour has an inside view of Indian cricket’s talent pool and he finds it reassuring.

“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 feels that by the time, Rohit and Kohli bid adieu to all formats, the younger stars would be well-settled, forming the nucleus for the next 10 years.

“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 in a confident analysis.

Just as Kohli and Rohit carried India’s batting on their shoulders for more than a decade, the next decade could well belong to Gill and Jaiswal.

“There are many exciting players coming through but these two 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,” the former Punjab skipper said.

Rathour was a good sounding board for Dravid in the last three years and when he says that Rinku Singh would make a good Test batter, the statement does carry weight.

“When I see him (Rinku) bat in nets, I can’t find any technical reasons why Rinku cannot be a successful Test batter. 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 (Rinku) 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,” Rathour said.

“Always told Virat to believe in his methods”

One question that Rathour would face at every second press conference during his tenure was Kohli’s extended lean patch after the 2019 World Cup and he maintained it was a “phase that everyone has to go through”.

“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 said.

Rahul gave us space and honest feedback

Rathour and Dravid made their Test debuts in the same series against England in 1996 and have played against each other in domestic cricket even before that.

A three-decade relationship helped when they came together as back-room staff.

“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 revealed.

Rathour said a case in point was Axar Patel, who fixed their problem of a decent batting option at number eight.

“That made a massive difference and gave the batters in top order lot more freedom to bat.”

Axar was always a good batter and all he needed was opportunity to express himself fearlessly with an “uncomplicated technique”.