Vikram Rathour joins Sri Lanka as consultant batting coach till end of T20 World Cup

Vikram Rathour, the former India opening batter and more recently the team's batting coach, has been appointed batting coach of the Sri Lanka men's national team "on a consultancy basis".

The appointment is "with a primary focus on the team's preparation for the ICC Men's T20I World Cup 2026," Sri Lanka Cricket said in a statement on Thursday. Rathour will join the squad on January 18, four days before the start of Sri Lanka's white-ball series at home against England, and remain with the team till March 10. The final of the T20 World Cup, jointly hosted by India and Sri Lanka, is scheduled for March 8.

There has been a number of changes in the Sri Lanka men's team in recent times. Lasith Malinga has been retained as a consultant bowling coach, though that arrangement ends before the start of the T20 World Cup and R Sridhar, another former staffer with the India team, has been appointed fielding coach.

That aside, Dasun Shanaka has replaced Charith Asalanka as the T20I captain till the end of the World Cup, and Pramodya Wickramasinghe, the former fast bowler, has taken over as the head of the men's selection committee.

Rathour, who played six Tests and seven ODIs between 1996 and 1997, had a stellar domestic career with Punjab. His five-year contract with the BCCI as India's batting coach ended after India's win at the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean in 2024. In that time, he worked with both Ravi Shastri and Rahul Dravid, the head coaches.

He subsequently joined Rajasthan Royals (RR) when Dravid was the head coach, and has worked closely with Kumar Sangakkara, the former Sri Lanka captain who is the IPL team's director of cricket and, as of the 2026 season, the head coach as well. Rathour has also worked briefly with the New Zealand Test team, a short-term arrangement in late 2024.