Former India batting coach Vikram Rathour has heaped praise on T20 World Cup-winning Indian captain Rohit Sharma, calling him a “clever tactician” and talking about his move to end Jasprit Bumrah’s over early in the T20 WC title clash against South Africa. Rathour, who served as the batting coach for the Men in Blue from 2021-24, helped India to become runners-up in two ICC World Test Championships, the ICC Cricket World Cup on home soil last year and the T20 champions this year after beating the Proteas. Rathour was speaking on former U19 World Cup-winning cricketer Taruwar’s podcast “Find a Way with Taruwar Kohli”.
In the podcast, Vikram said that Rohit may forget the decisions he made after winning the coin toss or the valuables he had with him while on a trip, but he never forgets the game plan.
“He may forget whether he decided to bat or bowl at the toss, he may forget his phone and iPad on the team bus, but he never forgets the game plan. He’s very good at it and a very smart tactician,” Rathour said.
The former batting coach described Rohit as a “players’ captain” and praised the amount of time and energy he puts into team meetings and strategy.
“He is a players’ captain. He invests in his players. I have never seen a captain who invests so much in team meetings and strategy. He spends a lot of time on the team’s strategy. He participates in bowler meetings, batsmen’s meetings. He sits with the bowlers and batsmen and tries to understand what they are thinking. He invests a lot of time in his players,” Rathour said.
On finishing Bumrah’s four-over spell in the 18th over in the title race, Vikram said giving Bumrah the ball early helped stem the Proteas’ run flow. They needed 30 runs from 30 balls and were chasing 177 runs. The last two overs went to Arshdeep Singh and Hardik Pandya, who were left with 20 runs to defend. Arshdeep and Hardik did the job successfully, and India won the match by seven runs.
“He (Rohit) is very tactically brilliant as a captain. In the T20 World Cup final, he ended Bumrah’s over early. Many would have questioned that decision. But that decision put us in a situation where we needed 16 runs in the last over. His tactical decisions on the pitch are right. When you sit out there, he is amazing as a coach too. We think what he is doing out there but after a while, we realise what he has done,” Latour concluded.
India ended their 11-year drought in the ICC Trophy with Virat Kohli (76), Axar Patel (47), Hardik Pandya (3/20) and Jasprit Bumrah (2/18) as the Men in Blue won by seven runs against South Africa in the final held in Barbados on June 29. Virat’s superb knock took India to 176/7 in 20 overs before Bumrah and Pandya put the Proteas on a pace choke to restrict them to 169/8 in 20 overs and snatch the game from the brink of defeat.
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