Key to unlock potential

PTI

Visakhapatnam, January 31

The likes of Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer deserve patience amid their current poor run, said India batting coach Vikram Rathour today, urging his wards to tackle England’s aggression with intelligence in the second Test here.

The Indians lost the opening Test in Hyderabad by 28 runs despite having a 190-run first-innings lead. England managed to shock the home favourites with their Bazball approach as Ollie Pope scored a match-winning 196.

The second Test starts here on Friday, with India looking to draw parity.

“There are young batters in our team who have not played much Test cricket. So, we need to be a bit patient with them. Batters like (Shubman) Gill, (Yashasvi) Jaiswal and (Shreyas) Iyer will eventually start getting big scores, I’m sure of it,” Rathour said today.

Although Jaiswal played a knock of 80 in the first innings of his fifth Test, Gill and Iyer failed to fire, continuing their struggles in the format. While Gill has played 21 Tests, Iyer has appeared in 13 games.

Gill hasn’t scored a 50 in his last nine Test innings, while Iyer also has been off-colour.

Rathour said he expects better application from the side’s batters in the second Test, where the home team will once again miss the services Virat Kohli.

“There’s a difference between playing with intent and playing attacking cricket. I want them to play with intent. If there is the opportunity to score some runs, they should take it,” Rathour said. “They need to decide by looking at the surface and conditions. So, the batters need to possess that intelligence as to which is the best or safest shot on the surface,” he explained.

England used the sweep shot quite well to blunt the effectiveness of the Indian spinners, but Rathour said it’s not a stroke that can be added overnight to a player’s repertoire.

“...you need to be prepared for that by practising it. If you add more shots to your game, it’s always beneficial. We played traditionally. The strength of strong areas is going straight when it comes to using our feet. We can keep doing that, and of course, if we can add more shots and score through the square of the wicket, that’s always an addition,” he said.

Sarfaraz or Patidar?

Rathour said it “will be tough” to pick between Sarfaraz Khan and Rajat Patidar in the second Test against England.

After the first game, India faced injury concerns with all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul being ruled out of the second Test.

This forced the selectors to add uncapped Sarfaraz Khan, Sourabh Kumar, Washington Sundar and Rajat Patidar to the squad.

“It will be a tough choice. What value they bring to the team, of course, is that they are superb players. We have seen how well they have done in domestic cricket in the last few years,” Rathour said. “On these kind of wickets, I think they can really add a lot of value to the team.”

The playing XI will be finalised keeping in mind the conditions. “It (pitch) is difficult to predict. It will turn, maybe not from the first day, but eventually, it will turn. That’s how the wicket looks like,” he said.

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