After 2019 World Cup semi-final failure, BCCI is selecting new staff for the Indian team. Although, BCCI’s selection panels are preferring old staff to continue the job. Ravi Shastri retained his job of Head Coach. Also, MSK Prasad’s selection panel prefers R Sridhar over Jonty Rhodes for India fielding coach’s position. Rhodes didn’t make it to the list of final 3 candidates for fielding coach’s job and Sridhar likely to retain his job. But, they have picked a new batting coach for the team. Vikram Rathod will replace Sanjay Bangar as the batting coach.
On picking new batting coach MSK Prasad said, “Frankly speaking if you see last five years (since 2014), definitely there is some amount of improvement but looking ahead with the Test Championship coming up and two T20 World Cups (in 2020 and 2021), we thought there should be some freshness in that department, so that’s the reason why we went ahead with Vikram Rathod as the first choice,”
Who Is Vikram Rathod?
Vikram Rathod was born on 26 March 1969 in Jalandhar, Punjab. Rathod made his debut for India in 1996 and played his last match for India in 1997. He played only 6 Tests and 7 ODIs for India in his career. In 6 tests, he has scored 131 runs with an average of 13 and the best score of 44. In ODIs, he aggregated 193 runs in 7 matches with an average of 27.
Rathod didn’t survive in international cricket and his weak footwork was one of the reasons behind it. But he has a great record in the domestic circuit. In 146 first-class matches, he has scored 11,473 runs with an average of 49 and his career include 33 centuries. Vikram had taken retirement from first-class cricket in 2003.
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In 2012, Rathod was appointed as the national selector from the north zone. Earlier Rathod had also applied for India under-19 coach’s job. But, BCCI’s CoA had rejected his application due to conflict of interest.
Now, 50-year old Vikram Rathod will serve team India as batting coach till T20 World Cup 2021. He beats 14 other applicants who were interviewed for the post included the likes of Pravin Amre, Mark Ramprakash and former England batsman Jonathan Trott.