Vikram Rathour reckons the Indian cricket team is better at chasing totals in T20I cricket than setting up totals.
Rathour, who took charge as the batting coach of India a few months back, revealed that the reason why India opted to defend and not chase during the series against South Africa despite knowing that there would be plenty of dew in the second innings was because they wanted to get better at defending.
India’s approach while batting first in T20I cricket has been a subject of much discussion in the recent times. Even if they don’t lose too many wickets, they go into their shell in the middle overs and rather than trying to constantly accelerate with plenty of wickets in the shed, they try rotating the strike.
There have been many instances in the past where India have lost just 2 or 3 wickets during the entire innings, but rather than crossing the 210 or 220 mark, they have scored only 180 or 190.
Rathour has acknowledged the problem pretty early in his reign and he wants to sort it out before India go into the WT20.
“We need to bat better when we bat first in T20I cricket. We chase pretty well.”, Rathour told the reporters.
Rathour also insists that India need to identify their “core” soon and persist with the core so that when the WT20 starts, they have a settled team. According to Rathour, there can be one or two changes here and there, but having a core is very, very important.
“We need to know what’s the core of our team and maintain that core and in between try out new few players.” Rathour said.
The WT20 is going to start from 18th of October next year in Australia with the final of the tournament scheduled to be played on 15th of November.
