Vikram Rathour names Jaiswal and Gill as India's next all-format players

Vikram Rathour, India’s batting coach until the victorious campaign in the 2024 T20 World Cup has stated his faith in the depth in Indian cricket, saying he isn’t "too concerned" about the transition period. 

India are set to tour Sri Lanka for a white-ball series that will include three T20Is and three ODIs from July 27 to August 7. The ODI series might see senior players like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah rested. Meanwhile, the retirements of Rohit, Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja from T20I cricket post the World Cup ensure a new-look side for the T20I series, as it was the case in the recently concluded five T20Is in Zimbabwe. 

Speaking to PTI, Rathour said, “I won't be too concerned about it [the transition]," Rathour said. "We have a lot of depth in Indian cricket. There are lots of very talented and skillful players 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.”

"It is never going to be easy to replace people of Rohit and Virat's caliber. The recently-concluded series against Zimbabwe gave us some glimpse into how the T20 team will look like in the future. But we still have a few years in Test and ODI cricket to get to that point,” he added. 

India won the series in Zimbabwe 4-1. Abhishek Sharma, a breakout star of the 2024 Indian Premier League season, made his international debut and also scored a hundred in the second T20I. 

Rathour stated that there are a few batters who can take Indian cricket forward, making sure the transition is smooth. 

"I am hoping that players like Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, to name a few, would establish themselves and will make the transition smooth. In ODIs, we have experienced players like Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya to take over,” he stated.

Among these, he singled out Jaiswal and Gill, who opened in the last three T20Is in Zimbabwe and also sailed the Men in Blue to a 10-wicket in the fourth fixture, to be India’s all-format batters. 

"There are many exciting players coming through but these two [Gill and Jaiswal] 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."

Having mentioned these names, Rathour also shed light on Rinku Singh’s potential to play Test cricket. The left-hander shot to fame with a couple of successful IPL seasons that led to his debut in both white-ball formats for India. However, Rinku has done well in first-class cricket as well, averaging 54.7 in 47 first-class games in his career. 

"When I see him 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 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, making the case for Rinku the Test cricketer. 

Rathour was part of India’s support staff under Rahul Dravid’s tenure as the head coach. The duo has played five Tests and one ODI together during the 1990s. After the T20 World Cup, Gautam Gambhir has stepped into Dravid's shoes with no announcement yet in the rest of the support staff.

Rathour mentioned that he and Dravid worked on changing India’s batting template in T20 cricket, while crediting Axar Patel’s presence in achieving the same. 

"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.

“That (Axar’s presence at number eight) made a massive difference and gave the batters in top order a lot more freedom to bat,” Rathour said. 

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