India batting coach Vikram Rathour reacts sternly on Virat Kohli's poor form: 'I'm not happy. If he scores more runs...'
India's Virat Kohli plays a shot during the ICC Men's T20 World Cup cricket match between Afghanistan and India at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown
Team India has had an unbeaten run at the T20 World Cup so far, but one of the lingering concerns throughout the tournament has been the lack of runs from its star batter, Virat Kohli. While India topped their group convincingly with wins over Ireland, Pakistan, and the USA, and also produced a strong performance to cruise past Afghanistan in their opening Super Eight match, Kohli has struggled in all four innings in the tournament so far.
In the group stage, Kohli failed to breach double figures with a combined score of five in three innings. On Friday against Afghanistan, Kohli made a wary start to his innings but fell as he tried to up the ante, scoring run-a-ball 24. The Indian batting stalwart has been opening the innings alongside Rohit Sharma, a role he has only performed once for India in T20Is before the ongoing World Cup but one in which he has significant experience in the Indian Premier League.
Team India's batting coach, Vikram Rathour, touched upon Kohli's form in detail ahead of the side's second match in the Super Eight stage against Bangladesh. According to Rathour, Kohli has been “challenged,” but his lean run is allowing the less experienced players to step up and contribute to the team’s cause.
“I’m not happy. I would love it if he gets going and scores more runs,” Rathour said when asked about the team's unbeaten run in the event without Kohli’s contribution.
“But yeah, it is good when you are challenged at times. You know, the guys who are not getting too much of batting in India sometimes, they are the ones who put up scores today and our middle-order came to play. So, it was good to see,” he said.
Kohli was India's highest run-scorer at the T20 World Cup in the previous edition, and the side will expect one of its best batters to step up in the remainder of the Super Eight, which also includes the blockbuster clash against Australia on Monday.
Rathour on Bangladesh
Bangladesh are coming into the game after a loss to Australia and are one of the easier teams in the tournament. But Rathour said India will not leave anything to chance.
“They're a good unit. They have a lot of guys who can spin the ball and they are good in certain conditions. And these conditions do suit them a little as a team I think because the wickets seem to have a bit of help for the spinners and they do have spinners in their team.
“But again, in this format I think every team is a tough team. I don't believe any contest in T20 cricket is an easy contest,” he said.
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