NEWS
Follow UsIndia’s batting coach Vikram Rathour believes Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal will serve Indian cricket for a very long time. Gill has been around for a couple of years, while Jaiswal made his international debut in the first Test against West Indies and made quite an impression.
The young left-hander crafted 171 off 387 deliveries on a slow Dominica surface and played a major role in India’s victory. Jaiswal opened the batting alongside skipper Rohit Sharma, while Gill was given the No. 3 spot. The latter, who has been bossing the two white-ball formats, could only score 6 and is now averaging below 32 in 17 Tests.
"He has a lot of potential, and he has reached that potential as well in other formats. He has also made runs in Test cricket. Sometimes it might take a bit of time in a particular format, and he is taking that time, but he has that time. The potential that he has, I have no doubt that he is the future of Indian team in batting. He will play for the Indian team for a long time, in all three formats," said Rathour.
"He is taking some time but the good thing is that there is no dearth of hardwork, he is working out on things. And along with potential he also has the temperament, which makes one a big player. Again, there's no doubt that he'll play all three formats for a long time."
Gill has played most of his first-class cricket at No. 3 and 4 and had requested the management to push him down the order, especially with Jaiswal being picked in the squad. “There are three openers in the team, so one had to go to No.3. But the good thing is that it came from Shubman himself, he said 'I'll like to go No.3'.
“His reasoning is that whenever he has played first-class cricket or for India, he has played at No. 3 or 4. He feels that his right position in the longer formats is that. So we were all happy with that decision. After that discussion, Rahul (Dravid) and Rohit decided that it would be better for him to play at No.3.
"We won't judge on one innings, he has a lot of time and surely he will do well for us in this position. Because he has the game for that. He can take his time and play, and he is a stroke-player as well who can move the game forward. Having such a batter at No.3 is extremely advantageous."
Rathour was very impressed with the way Jaiswal managed to adjust to the conditions and batted accordingly. The 21-year-old has a superb IPL 2023, slamming 625 runs at a strike rate of 163.61, but took his time in Dominica and batted with tremendous patience.
"I've been a selector before, so whenever you pick a player you should pick him with the intent that he will play for India for the next 10 years. He definitely has the potential. For me the most important thing (even though) I haven't worked with Yashasvi before, was that I had seen him scoring runs at the IPL, you saw how dynamic a batsman he is, the kind of stroke-player he is. But he managed to change the game according to the situation of the team,” said Rathour.
"On the second day he scored some 20 runs off 90 balls before Lunch. I think that for me was the highlight of the innings. Somebody who is able to do that, who can play against his character, his normal game, get through that phase and then score big runs, it was phenomenal to watch. Absolutely no doubt that he has great potential and great future with the Indian team in all three formats.”
Rathour also spoke about Virat Kohli, who hasn't scored an overseas century since 2019. The right-handed batter scored 76 in the first Test but couldn't convert it into a hundred. "His (Kohli’s) good form went for a really long time, nearly kept scoring for nine years. Cricket logic tells us that the lean phase was on the horizon. His good phase lasted a really long time and if there’s a loss of momentum, it will last for some time.
"The five years he hasn’t scored a century (overseas), three of them we were dealing with Covid. So there weren’t enough games, restrictions. So there’s not much to look into it. He’s batting really well and as batting coach I believe in adaptability. He’s an aggressive player, tries to dominate but a good player is someone who can change his game as per conditions and team’s requirement. That is Virat’s biggest quality. He can play different formats differently, he has shown it in the past."
