T20 World Cup: Rathour on whether Pant could replace Rahul – ‘We’re not really thinking that’

India’s batting coach Vikram Rathour said on Saturday that his side is not fazed by fast bowling as it prepared to face South Africa on a bouncy Perth pitch at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022. The former India batter also said there are no considerations to leave KL Rahul out of the XI.

One of the favourites to win the tournament, India have had a perfect start to the Super 12 stage with two wins, including one over arch-rivals Pakistan.

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A win against the Proteas on Sunday would all but ensure a semi-finals spot.

But a South African attack featuring Kagiso Rabada, Wayne Parnell and Anrich Nortje is set to test Indian batters on a Perth track that has provided pace and bounce aplenty in the World Cup so far.

Rathour, however, expressed confidence in his side’s ability to navigate the conditions.

“The group of batters that we have in our team, I don’t think pace really bothers us that much,” he said in the pre-match press conference.

Superstar Virat Kohli has led India’s batting charge Down Under, hitting an unbeaten 82 in the last-ball win over Pakistan in Melbourne.

Kohli, skipper Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav then hammered the Netherlands bowling as a second win took them to the top of Group 2.

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“He [Kohli] is 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,” said Rathour.

Rahul’s form has been a concern, however, after he scored four and nine in the two games.

Asked if the team management is looking to replace Rahul with Rishabh Pant, Rathour responded with a firm negative.

“No, we’re not really thinking that. Two games, I don’t think that’s a good enough sample size anyways. He’s been batting really well and he’s batted really well in the practice games, also, so we’re not looking at any such thing at the moment,” he said.

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So far at the World Cup, India have not made explosive starts and gone instead with a more conservative approach and getting runs in the final few overs.

“We are looking to adapt. Of course playing with intent is always the goal,” said Rathour. “We are looking to score runs whenever we can. 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 also spoke about India reaching Perth early before the tournament started, having played a couple of matches (not at this venue) against Western Australia. The batting coach said that was the idea as they knew South Africa was a crucial match.

You can watch the full press conference here:

Inputs from AFP