"Never going to be easy to replace Rohit and Virat": Vikram Rathour

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 wellequipped to handle the phase provided it unfolds in a controlled and gradual mannerVirat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are still available for ODIs and Tests India will have to struggle with the transition phase as the stalwart moves to their last phase It is never going to be easy to replace people of Rohit and Virats calibre Rathour also a former selector told PTI in an exclusive interviewThe recentlyconcluded 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 Dravids coaching teamHaving served as national selector and coach of the senior mens team Vikram Rathour has an inside view of the talent and he finds it reassuringI wont 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 gradualAlso ReadIt is a good thing that everyone is performing Shubman Gill on competition for openers slotsVikram Rathour feels that by the time Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma end their careers the youngsters will be wellprepared to take on the responsibility for the next 10 yearsI 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 smoothIn ODIs also we have experienced players like Shreyas Iyer KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya to take over Rathour said in a confident analysisJust like Kohli and Rohit carried Indian batting on their back for a decade Gill and Jaiswal could be the two to look after it for the next decadeThere 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 saidRathour 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 weightWhen I see him Rinku bat in nets I cant 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 firstclass record he is averaging in high 50sHe 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 saidOne question that Rathour would face at every second press conference during his tenure was Kohlis 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 saidVikram Rathour and Rahul Dravid debuted for India in the same series against England in 1996 The duo has played domestic cricket against each other event before thatA threedecade relationship helped when they came together as a backroom 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 honest feedbackOne 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 revealedRathour 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 batAxar was always a good batter and all he needed was an opportunity to express himself fearlessly with an uncomplicated techniqueWith PTI Inputs