Vikram Rathour Predicts Tough England Tour For Young Indian Team
The five-match series will begin on June 20 at Leeds, marking the start of a new World Test Championship cycle.
Former batting coach Vikram Rathour is expecting a tough England tour for a young Indian side that is now without three stalwarts, who left the Test arena in quick succession.
First it was veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and then skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli too walked into the sunset, leaving a huge gap.
Shubman Gill will most likely be India's new Test skipper and will have a new-look top and middle order.
The five-match series will begin on June 20 at Leeds, marking the start of a new World Test Championship cycle.
"It's going to be a tough tour. It's not going to be an easy tour because the seniors have retired a lot. So, the young team is leaving. There could be a new captain. So, all these things will add a little bit of pressure," said Rathour, who spoke after Rajasthan Royals' win over Chennai Super Kings on Tuesday.
"But also it's an opportunity to showcase your talent and your ability." Rathour, who shared a good rapport with all top Indian batters during his stint, said the fans must respect the decision taken by the senior players.
"All three of them were phenomenal cricketers who retired. So, I would have loved for them to carry on. But it's, again, a very, very personal decision. I'm close to all three of them.
"So, you know, I would have, as I said, I would have loved to see them play more. But, again, it's a very, very personal decision, I think. And if they've taken this decision, we should respect that," he said.
Rathour, who is the batting coach of RR, was expectedly effusive in his praise for their find of the season, the 14-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi, who played a key role in the team signing off with a win against CSK.
Instead of an extravagant approach, he took some time and waited before unleashing his shots on Tuesday.
"We've been working with him for quite some time now, maybe three to four months now. We've seen all these aspects, but it's great to see when he's doing that in a game, in pressure situations, in a big game like even today. You're right, the ball was doing a bit when he went in, hardly got any balls, didn't get on strike too much in the power play," Rathour said.
"The kind of maturity he showed, the kind of temperament he showed, really good for him. And these kind of experiences will definitely make him a better player in coming time." Rathour rued that despite having a strong batting unit at their disposal, they lost winnable games and also blamed poor fielding for their misery.
They managed to avoid last-place finish and believe that the worst is over.
"I don't think we fielded very well throughout the tournament. Bowling did let us down a few times where you let them score too many runs, 10, 15 extra runs mostly every game.
"And then again, with batting also, batting was our strength. We had retained five batters in the squad, and that is, I believe, our strength. And, you know, we got terrific starts at times," he said.
"We got ourselves into the positions where we should have finished the games, but unfortunately couldn't do that. It hurts. It was a little disappointing, but it also gives you a lot of hope for the coming season because I think this was the worst that is over." Apart from Suryavanshi, Rathour also picked out Dhruv Jurel for special praise.
"He's (Jurel) got great temperament, that kid. He's got great technique as well as a batsman."
(This story is published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the body by ABP Live.)
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