Bouncing back Down Under after 36 all out was really special: Rathour

The T20 World Cup triumph will certainly remain a defining moment in the history of Indian cricket as it ended a 13-year drought for an ICC trophy, but outgoing batting coach Vikram Rathour is happy to have been privy to several highs in Test cricket as well.

Rathour, whose tenure ended with the Rahul Dravid regime, was the only senior member of the support staff who had worked with ‘The Wall’ as well as Ravi Shastri before him in that role for over five years.

The former Test opening batter of the 1990s, who took over from Sanjay Bangar after India’s semi-final heartbreak in the 2019 ICC World Cup in England, had his contract renewed when the Dravid era began in Indian cricket under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma in end-2021.

‘’The World T20 triumph was a much needed title as despite playing some consistent cricket over a period of time, an ICC title was eluding us. However, I cherish some terrific memories of Test wins during my stay with the boys, especially the way they bounced back after being 36 all out in Adelaide to win the 2020-21 series,’’ the soft-spoken Rathour said.

Looking back at his eventful tenure with the Indian team over the last five years, the once prolific scorer for Punjab sought to downplay any talk of leaving a legacy. Rathour, who was part of the Indian squad when Dravid made his Test debut in England in 1996, has been a national selector too, and his inputs held immense value for his former teammate and head coach.

However, the self-effacing Rathour summed up his role thus: ‘’See, I am not a believer in legacy. I just did my job and enjoyed working with this special bunch immensely. It’s for you guys to decide whether I could add any value. We worked really hard and there were some highs with the lows but we were the no. 1 ranked team in all three formats over a period of time for a reason,’’ he reflected.

The talk dominating the Indian cricket fraternity is whether there could be a smooth transition in the T20 format in the immediate future after the retirement of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja at one go. ‘’It will not be easy to find replacements for performers like them but Indian cricket is lucky to blessed with an enormous talent pool in this format, thanks to the IPL.

"The likes of (Shubman) Gill, (Yashasvi) Jaiswal or (Rishabh) Pant have already had enough exposure and can be the mainstays of their batting line-up along with SKY (Suryakumar Yadav), a phenomenal T20 performer,’’ Rathour felt.

Moving on from such a demanding assignment, does he see himself in an IPL role in future? ‘’Coaching is something I love doing, though I don’t know if it’s going to be IPL. Right now, I am taking a break as it’s been non-stop travel for me for the last five years. Then we will see,’’ he signed off.