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Sports

Pant's shots make him special: Vikram Rathour

Mohali, Sep 17

In his first assignment as batting coach, Vikram Rathour has spent only about a week with the Indian team, but the former national selector is keen to adapt quickly to the way the Men in Blue function.

Speaking to the media on the eve of the second T20I between India and South Africa, Rathour said that he has been a part of the set-up for a while and he knows the players and has interacted with almost all of them.

"The interaction with the team has been good. I have been in this profession for a long time. I have interacted with almost all the players. Nothing too tough, it will take me some time to adjust in the setup, but I will manage," he said.

Young turk Rishabh Pant has been recently criticised for not playing the right shots, but the former national selector said that it was important that the player realises that there is a difference between fearless cricket and careless cricket.

"All young cricketers need to understand the difference between fearless cricket and careless cricket. The team wants everyone to play without fear. We want Rishabh to play all his shots as it makes him special. But you do not want any batsman to be careless and reckless," he said.

Backing youngsters is the mantra as the Indian team prepares for the World T20 in Australia next year and Rathour said that it was important that the players keep performing consistently.

"Everyone needs to take their opportunities. Everyone has played a good number of matches. The entire team is backing them and I am sure we continue to back them up, they will produce good results.

"We are fortunate to have so many all-rounders in the T20 format. Manish (Pandey) and Shreyas (Iyer) are two fine cricketers. Manish has done well in the past and Shreyas had a successful tour to West Indies. They just need to be consistent," he said.

Asked about Rohit and how he could be the solution to India's woes at the top of the order in Tests, the batting coach said: "I think he is too good a player to not be playing in any team. Everybody in the side echoes this opinion. He is a wonderful opening batsman in the limited-overs format, so there is no reason why he cannot be successful in Test matches. If he gets his gameplan right, he can be a great asset to the team."