Don’t think these are 200-plus pitches: Rathour
India batting coach highlighted the team adopting a more conservative approach in testing conditions for batters as the T20 World Cup is being played in the Australian spring
There have been just two 200-plus scores so far, both at Sydney which has the slowest pitch with the second-lowest bounce among this T20 World Cup’s venues. The fast bowling in this tournament has been exceptionally good. So good that five out of six bowlers to return an economy of under five in this Super 12 round are pacers. Sam Curran has a five-wicket haul. Trent Boult picked four wickets against Sri Lanka on Saturday. Movement off the pitch and in the air has been encouraging enough to deploy slips, lowering powerplay scores and prompting batters to be more careful.
India have quietly reworked their tactics. Spring in Australia is not a good time for batters. While the talk—on and off the field—was of playing fearless cricket, there has clearly been a shift in tactic. Virat Kohli’s once-criticised approach—starting cautiously and ending on a high note—may well be the most fool-proof one in Australia during this time. Kohli too has gone back to playing that way. Against Pakistan at the MCG, Kohli’s first 25 runs came off 28 balls and then he shifted gears to score 57 off the next 25. In Sydney too, his first 25 runs came off 24 balls and the next 37 off 20.
Kohli’s approach has rubbed off on others. In the first game against Pakistan, Hardik Pandya adopted caution in a very tense chase while against Netherlands Rohit Sharma did that after KL Rahul got out early. Suryakumar Yadav’s presence is the crucial factor here. Since this is a game of strike rates, Yadav’s high 190s strike rate can compensate for slow starts. So, even if everyone is playing his own game, India’s scoring chances haven’t been dented by much because the targets have been reset.
India batting coach Vikram Rathour feels this tournament may not see high scores. “I don't think these are 200, 200-plus wickets, so we’ll need to adapt; I think we have done pretty well in that regard so far,” he said at the pre-match press conference here on Saturday. “We are looking to adapt. Of course, playing with intent is always the goal. But then we need to take into account the conditions that we are playing on, the surfaces we are playing on.”
Asked whether Kohli has consciously tried to change his approach, especially after the Asia Cup, Rathour said: “Not really. We pride ourselves to be a team which will take the conditions and situation into account and that's what we've been looking to do. The conditions, the situation demanded of him to play in a certain way and he’s done that. He’s a good enough player to change or adapt his game to whatever the team requires, and he's done that brilliantly so far. We know that he’ll carry on doing that.”
