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'In A Controlled Manner...,' Ex-Batting Coach Warns Gambhir After Kohli-Rohit T20I Retirement

Gambhir is India's new head coach (X.com)Gambhir is India's new head coach (X.com)

India finally won the much-awaited ICC trophy after the gap of 11 long years with a victory over South Africa in the final of the T20 World Cup 2024. Rohit Sharma was the leader of the pack and he along with Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja announced their retirement from the format after the truimph.

All these three players and some other star players also are now moving towards the wrong side of their 30s, and Indian cricket is likely to go in a transition phase, not only in T20Is but also in other formats. 

Now, India's former batting coach Vikram Rathour who was part of India's T20 World Cup campaign has expressed his views on the health of Indian cricket and how it can go forward from hereon in an exclusive interview to PTI.

The former Indian batting coach stated that it not going to be easy to replace quality players like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. He added that the Zimbabwe series gave a glimpse of the future in T20 Cricket but he cautioned that there is still some time to get to that stage in other formats.

"It is never going to be easy to replace people of Rohit and Virat's calibre," Rathour, also a former selector. The recently-concluded series against Zimbabwe (on Sunday) gave us some glimpse into how the T20 team will look like in future. But we still have a few years in Test and ODI cricket to get to that point."

He mentioned that there is great depth in Indian cricket but warned against hasty transition and added that it should be in controlled manner under new coach Gautam Gambhir.

"I won't be too concerned about it. We have a lot of depth in Indian cricket. There are lots of very talented and skilful players who are coming through the system. The only thing we need to make sure is the transition is done in a controlled manner. It needs to be gradual."

Gautam Gambhir is now all set to take over the coaching duties from India tour of Sri Lanka and with the man known for taking bold decisions, Rathour's advice holds a key as India move forward towards new bigger assignments in world cricket.