Batting coach Vikram Rathour defends Indian bowlers' struggles in death overs

Vikram Rathour alongside coach Rahul Dravid and Captain Rohit Sharma. PC: Twitter

Indian Men’s team batting coach Vikram Rathour defended Indian bowlers after being asked about their recent poor performances in the death overs.

Rohit Sharma and his men are gearing up to take on the world in the upcoming T20I World Cup in Australia. While they have been clinical in ticking all boxes ahead of the mega event, defending the target and leaking too many runs in the death has been one major reason behind India’s losses lately.

Coming into the Asia Cup 2022, India were in terrific form with 16 wins out of 21 T20Is this year. But since the Super-4 of the Asia Cup, the men in blue have lost half of the T20Is they have played.  and all the defeats came while defending targets.

The likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel and even Jasprit Bumrah against Australia fail to keep the opposition quiet during the slogging overs.

The Dew Factor

While speaking to the media ahead of the first T20I of the three match series against South Africa in Thiruvananthapuram, batting coach Vikram Rathour mentioned dew factor being a factor that created difficulties for the Indian bowlers.

“We are working on that area of getting better at defending targets. But to be fair to our bowlers, toss plays a vital role and every time we have not been able to defend are the places where there has been dew, so it gets easier to chase,” Rathour said.

This statement comes as a surprise because none of the Indian team members, who spoke to the media lately, talked about the dew factor. However, Rathour might have mentioned the dew factor based on the Mohali T20I against Australia last week.

"I won't be harsh on the bowlers as they have been able to push the match till the last over, every time when we are looking to defend. It’s one ball here and there but of course, we are doing pretty well but hopefully, we will get better," he added.

Change in batting approach

Rathour was further asked if the batters keep a target in mind while batting in the middle because they have not been able to put up good scores.

"Definitely. It depends on the surface that we are playing on but when you say we haven’t been able to put up good scores, I don’t agree with that.

“There’s a visible shift in the way we are batting. Our approach has changed a bit. We are actually being more aggressive.  We have done well every time when we batted first."

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