Vikram Rathour never looked an assuring presence in the six Tests where he opened the batting. This was a pity really because he appeared to be a fine prospect early in his career. Plucky without being dour, and a fluent driver of the ball, the bearded Rathour was the bulwark of Punjab's batting through the early nineties. Among the chosen few to visit England in 1996, he made tons of runs in the tour games (759 at 58.38 to be precise), including an unlaboured 165 against Worcestershire as well as a fifty in the third ODI at Old Trafford. But he flopped in the Tests with a highest of 20 in four innings, the awayswinging ball invariably edged to the slips exposing limitations in his technique.

A further chance in the one-off Test against Australia followed, with little change in fortune, and Rathour found himself banished for the home series against the South Africans. With none of the opening combinations tested here clicking, Rathour found himself flying off to South Africa for the return series. The same pattern on the English tour was re-enacted as Rathour made three fifties and a hundred in the two provincial games, but he came a cropper against Allan Donald in the two Tests he played - although a useful 44 at the Wanderers helped India to their highest opening stand of the series (90). There ended his international career and despite continuing to score at will in the domestic arena, he was never again considered.

After retiring he lived in England for seven years before returning to coach Punjab, and was named an Indian national selector in September 2012.
Sankhya Krishnan