India won't change batting approach against England's 'Bazball': Vikram Rathour on playing reverse sweeps
As India gears up for their second Test against England at Visakhapatnam, their batting coach Vikram Rathour made sure to say that they prefer the 'traditional way' of cricket, unlike the English batters who depend on reverse sweeps.
In Short
- Indian batting coach Vikram Rathour said his side will play the traditional way of cricket in 2nd Test
- England batters like Ollie Pope and Ben Duckett used reverse sweeps to deal with Indian spinners
- Shubhman Gill and Shreyas Iyer struggled significantly against English spinners in Hyderabad
India will take a traditional approach to their second home Test against England, according to the team's batting coach, despite the tourists' success with their attacking "Bazball" strategy.
After suffering a 28-run loss to England in the first of five Test match series, India are now preparing for the second match in Visakhapatnam, where they will look to right their wrongs. Skipper Rohit Sharma and his team will be looking to regain their dominance in home Tests after losing to England.
The England side recorded an iconic comeback during the Hyderabad Test, where they went from fighting against an innings defeat to the home side on Day 3 to ultimately getting the better of the home side on Day 4, majorly due to Ollie Pope's game-changing 196 off 278 innings.
The biggest reason for this turnaround was the ability of English batters like Pope and Ben Duckett, to get a hold of experienced Indian spinners like Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja with their sweep and reverse sweeps. The England batters effectively dealt with the low-height deliveries by Indian spinners, with perfectly timed sweep shots, leaving the Indian bowlers with no quick answer to their resilience.
Ever since India's defeat, speculations have been floating around the probability of Indian batter adopting a similar kind of approach as that of English batters, by using sweep shots to deal with the likes of Tom Hartley, who bagged 7 wickets during the Hyderabad Test.
However, Indian batting coach Vikram Rathour believes that implementing sweep shots is not as easy as it sounds and requires proper preparation. Rathour acknowledged that reverse sweeps and sweeps might just open the window for batters to bag some vital additional runs, but also stated that it was not the kind of approach that the Indian team play their games with.
"It is not something that you can try, you need to be preparedâ€æ" Vikram Rathour said about Indian batters using sweep shots.
According to the 54-year-old, this Indian side is trained to be ahead of the traditional approach of cricket which mostly involves playing straight using their feet. This makes them not accustomed to any sort of sweep shots, which nullifies any probability of using them in-match.
"Of course if you can add more shots to your game it is always beneficialâ€æyou are right we play in a traditional way, our strengths and strong areas are going straight using our feetâ€æif we can add shots and score runs square of the wicket that is always a good addition." Rathour added.
Batters like Shubhman Gill, Shreyas Iyer struggled considerably against the English spinners like Hartley and Rehan Ahmed, amping up the speculation about a change in batting approach for the Indian batters even further.