Vikram Rathour, the newly appointed batting coach of Indian men’s cricket team, backed Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey, saying these batters are capable of doing the job in the middle order.
The coach also opened up about India’s No 4 batting woes. It is to note that it was the middle order that eventually saw India getting knocked out of the recently concluded World Cup.
After the World Cup, Shreyas Iyer was tried in the middle-order and the Mumbaikar did well to score 136 runs in two matches against the West Indies. Speaking to BCCI on Friday, Rathour mentioned that the middle order of India in white-ball cricket is one of the primary concerns.
“It is not just about the World Cup. It is one slot (we must look at). The middle-order in one-day is not doing well and we must, of course, sort it out.”
Backing Iyer and Pandey, Rathour said, “Shreyas Iyer has done well in the last couple of games and we also have Manish Pandey. These two guys have done very well in domestic cricket and with India A. These are the batters who are capable of doing the job and I have no doubt about it in my mind. It is a matter of getting it right at the top level. We need to back them and provide them with the right preparations so that they can be there for a longer time. They have enough talent in them to do well.”
The upcoming series against South Africa will mark Rathour’s first assignment with Indian team as batting coach. India take on South Africa in three T20 Internationals, from 15 September, followed by a three-match Test series.