T20 World Cup: Don’t think pace really bothers current group of India batters, says Vikram Rathour

Perth:  After flying in from one end of Australia to land in another extreme corner of the country, Group 2 table-toppers India are now gearing up for a high-pace challenge from a fiery South Africa fast-bowling attack in their third Super 12 match of Men’s T20 World Cup at Perth Stadium on Sunday.

With many seeing Sunday’s match as a face-off between India’s batters and South Africa’s fast bowlers on a pacy Perth pitch, batting coach Vikram Rathour feels that high pace isn’t an issue for the current crop of Indian batters to deal with in the shortest format of the game.

“The group of batters that we have in our team right now, I don’t think pace really bothers us that much. So, I am not really concerned. It seems to be a good wicket. Melbourne pitch was tough, but whatever we have seen so far (of the pitch at Perth), this looks better with more even pace and bounce. So, let’s see how it goes,” said Rathour in the pre-match press conference.

Incidentally, India had held a short preparatory camp in Perth in early October and also played two practice matches against Western Australia XI to acclimatise to the conditions in Australia. Rathour hopes that the lessons learnt and strategies made from the time spent previously in Perth will benefit them against South Africa.

“Yes, absolutely. We will get advantage of that. The idea of coming ahead and practising in Perth (for ten days) was about this only. We always knew that this (match against South Africa) will always be an important game for us in Perth. So, that is why we came to Perth early and did some practice and get used to the conditions. So, that will definitely help.”

“Definitely the conditions are different. But again, as a team, as a batting unit or as the complete team, actually we pride ourselves being able to adapt, and that is what good international teams should be able to do anyway, so looking forward to playing in these conditions, and let’s see how the game goes.”

Rathour also believes that the tournament might not see many scores of 200+ and that adaptability will be the key to garner as many runs as possible. “We are looking to adapt. Of course playing with intent is always the goal. We are looking to score runs whenever we can.”

“Depends on the conditions we are playing on. 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.”

“But then we need to keep in account the conditions that we are playing on, the surfaces we are playing on. I don’t think these are 200, 200-plus wickets, so we’ll need to adapt, and I think we have done pretty well in that regard so far.”

Rathour signed off by appreciating Virat Kohli for adapting his game as per the conditions on offer in India’s twin victories till now. Kohli has been in good touch with scores of 82 not out and 62 not out against Pakistan and Netherlands.

“The conditions demanded him or the situation demanded him to play in a certain way, and he’s done that. He’s a good enough player to change his game or adapt his game to whatever the team requires, and he’s done that brilliantly so far, and we know that he’ll carry on doing that.”

–IANS