JOIN OUR WHATSAPP CHANNEL
Sourav Ganguly calls Vikram Rathour a fantastic gentleman : All about Team India's new batting coach
Here's all you need to know about Team India's newly appointed batting coach Vikram Rathour
Former India opener Vikram Rathour replaced Sanjay Bangar as the new batting coach of the Indian Cricket Team. He will be working in unison with bowling coach Bharat Arun and fielding coach R Sridhar under Ravi Shastri. While the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) led by Kapil Dev along with Anshuman Gaekwad and Shantha Rangaswamy appointed the Head Coach of the team, it was the senior national selection committee headed by MSK Prasad which appointed the bowling coach, fielding coach, physiotherapist and administrative manager of the national team.
Vikram Rathour represented India in 6 Tests and seven ODIs in 1996. He scored 131 runs from 6 Tests and 193 runs from 7 ODIs with a solitary half-century in ODIs. His career only lasted for six months at the highest level and was one of those players who couldn't replicate his domestic performances in international cricket. He was also a part of the senior selection committee under Sandeep Patil.
Vikram Rathour was heavily backed by several members of the BCCI. Many said that his presentations and CV was impressive and with the selectors opting for fresh faces in the batting department, Rathour was an automatic choice.
MSK Prasad also backed Vikram Rathour, he said, "If you see the last five years, there is some amount of improvement. Looking ahead, with the Test Championship and two T20 World Cups coming up, we thought there should be some freshness in that department, so that's the reason why we went ahead with Rathour as the first choice."
Rathour had previously applied for the role of batting consultant with the National Cricket Academy (NCA) and U-19 batting coach, but his application was rejected due to conflict of interest as his brother-in-law Ashish Kapoor is the chairman of the U-19 selection committee.
Former Skipper Sourav Ganguly also backed Rathour to come good as the batting coach of the national side. He said, "I have played with him, our Test match debuts were in the same series. He just made his debut one game ahead of me, and I played with him in the junior levels as well. Fantastic guy, he's a fantastic gentleman."
"He's worked hard at the grassroots level with Himachal Pradesh. I am the president of the Cricket Association of Bengal and I've dealt with him in the last four-five years in sending teams to Himachal when Himachal would come for Ranji Trophy matches. He's risen from absolutely the basics of Ranji Trophy and putting the hard yards with Himachal boys so hopefully he does well, hopefully all of them along with Bharat and the fielding coach they can get this team to win bigger medals and bigger trophies because this team has got all the talent."
