Vikram Rathour, India's batting coach: 'Failure teaches you that nothing stops. That liberates you, actually'
Ahead of the England series, Rathour talks about getting the most out of a player's natural game, and looks back at the Australia series
At that point the middle order was not really settled in the shorter format, especially. We were still looking for somebody to establish themselves. When I came in, Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey were the guys who had just gotten into the team and were still looking to establish themselves.
New Zealand was challenging conditions again. The ball seams a lot, a lot of grass on the wicket. That being my first [overseas] tour, my analysis [in hindsight] was that there was a lot of talk - this is what to expect, this is where the ball is going to be, this is what the New Zealand bowling attack will be looking to bowl at. But I don't think we really prepared that well - there was hardly any time to actually practise those things. So that is where this Australian tour was a little different.
"Data is something that gives you some information, but how you read it, what you want to share with the batsmen, that is a completely different question"
This is something I'm getting used to. In our time, there was hardly any data provided. I did a bit of coaching, [then] became a selector, and there again, there were numbers we were dealing with, but not looking at real data.
When we looked at the numbers, or the way we have batted in the past couple of series in Australia, how Virat [Kohli] or Ajinkya [Rahane] or [Cheteshwar] Pujara have scored their runs, I was pretty certain that if this is what the [Australian] bowling unit is also looking at, they would not give us too much room outside off stump because most of our runs were scored square of the wicket.
Fortunately, I was a [national] selector before this. So I knew all of the guys, I had spent time with them. Once you become a batting coach, again you still have to understand the batsman - everybody reacts differently, everybody wants similar information, you have to give it to them differently. Everybody is expected to deal with that information differently. So that is what you need to learn. But, yeah, I'm more settled now.
He played two shots, actually, which were discussed: one was the pull shot and the other one was against Nathan Lyon, where he got caught at long-on. You are right, that these are the shots he plays, and he plays them pretty well, so as a coach you want him to back his strengths. The only discussion I had with him was that having a strength is a great thing, but knowing when to use it [is equally important]: what the situation of the team is, what the bowlers are trying at that moment. So your game plan is different from your strength. I was okay with his pull shot, to be very specific, because that's a shot he plays with instinct and plays really well.
"If your mindset is clear, if you keep making the right decisions, picking the right balls, you can still score runs. And those things are more important at this level than only technique"
I'll give you an example: like Rishabh Pant in the first innings of the Brisbane Test. He got out playing a cut shot, which he was trying to keep down and got caught at gully. So there could be criticism for that shot, but I thought it was on because [Australia] didn't have a deep third man at that point. And Rishabh is somebody who plays his shots. That's his game. We want him to play shots.
I have always believed that batting is about scoring runs. So you should be looking to score runs at all times. But again, what shots are on? Is there a need to play that shot? And I think he himself realised that maybe he picked the wrong ball to play that shot - it was too close to him. So these are the things that you need to learn as a batsman and you need to keep working on.
Any day. Temperament combined with game plans. Technique is an important aspect, but a lot of people give it too much importance. They put everything on technique, which I don't believe in. Cricket is about handling pressure, making the right decisions, picking the right balls to play your shots, which are the bowlers you can score against, what are the areas, where are your singles, where are your boundaries… All of this comes under game plans and tactics.
Keeping it simple, that's what we've tried in this series: playing sessions not looking to win, not looking at the results. I mean, all the coaches keep talking about focusing on process and not on results. All the talk throughout, after being 36 all out [in Adelaide], or after winning the Test [in Melbourne] was only on building up partnerships, playing the sessions well, looking to score runs without taking too many risks. The message going out all the time was, let's not worry about results, results will take care of themselves if we keep batting and doing things correctly.
Not really. It was disappointing. I really believe that we prepared well for the series. And then that came as a shocker, actually. You couldn't really explain what happened. And it happened so quickly, there was hardly any time to reflect on what was happening. Even after looking at it, how the wickets fell, you couldn't really find any faults - there were hardly any bad shots, there was no loose cricket, there was hardly any tentativeness. You just kept getting out. So again, the discussion was don't worry, don't let the doubts creep in at this stage. We've done well, we prepared well. So keep backing that preparation and better your methods, your techniques and your game plans. And hopefully, things will improve. And they did.
"Ultimately it boils down to you handling pressure, making the right decisions in the middle. And that has nothing to do with what you see on the screen. That's all inside you"
This is the discussion I had with Virat as well, where he felt the intent could have been better, but the point was that everybody got out playing five, seven, nine balls, so there was hardly time to show any intent actually (grins). You were just looking to get set, which is the way it should be, but people just kept getting out. We were not really tentative. We just got out.
Without a doubt he [Shaw] is one of the more talented guys that we have in our team. There was a lot of talk about his technique and all that stuff. But my discussions with him were to bat more, train harder. Keep backing that and keep enjoying cricket, don't overthink. You have to understand, at that age - he is what, 21 or 22? - he just had one poor game actually, and after that he hasn't played.
There was a lot of talk of him playing the ball away from the body. With him, the feet were not coming along. So he was stationary and the bat was going away towards the ball. The thing he needs to do is to move his feet as well: they need to be next to the ball, closer to the ball. That's the only suggestion I've given him. For me, his initial [trigger movement] was a little late, so he was still halfway through it when the ball was delivered. And that was the reason he was getting late on the ball. He needs to do his initial movement a little early, so that his final movement is done in time. And he was doing that in nets and he was looking much better.
It is a tough one, because I've been part of the selection panel. How do you know what will work and what won't? It is not that easy to assess. The way Prithvi Shaw was batting, at one point he looked like scoring runs everywhere. The way Mayank [Agarwal] has batted - how do you know that [his game] won't work on overseas tours? Because people with different kinds of techniques or unorthodox [players] have still gone on and scored runs everywhere. Ultimately it boils down to you handling pressure, making the right decisions in the middle. And that has nothing to do with what you see on the screen. That's all inside you - how you're dealing with pressure or what decisions you are making, what balls to pick. What we see on television, or in front of us, is basically just the technical part. So to base your decision on that, that this guy will score runs abroad, is a little tough.
Yes, I believe that. He is extremely, extremely clear with what he wants, how he wants to do it. And that's very unique for somebody at his age [21]. I saw him the first time when I was coaching Himachal Pradesh. We played a game against Punjab in the Vijay Hazare Trophy in Alur [Bengaluru], and he scored a hundred in that game. You could see and know that this guy is special.
"Mentally, the batsmen are ready now [for England]. They have started visualising, they have started planning their game, how to stand if the ball is going to reverse, which are the areas to score"
It has just been on his game plans. That's the only area he needs to work on or get better at. He is an extremely intelligent guy, who knows everything, who is street smart, who understands his game, what the bowlers are trying to do. The only discussions I have been having with him, and the area I still believe he can get even better at, is shot selection - the right balls that he needs to pick to play those shots.
It was just, "Well played, boss." He really, really played well and won the game for the team. So it was a job well done.
At the time, nothing, but otherwise he is a very bindaas [carefree] kind of a character. I had a chat with him today and I was asking him how it has been since he has come back after winning the series for the team. And he is saying, "Has anything changed? Not really." He doesn't believe that he has done anything special. This is how he plays and this is what he should be doing. As far as improvements are concerned as a batsman, he wants to become a finisher for India in all formats.
I felt that in the past couple of series the tailenders had done pretty poorly against Australia in Australia. It is not easy, to be honest, the kind of bowling they faced is not easy: three bowlers bowling 140-plus and short at you. The only thing I discussed with them is to try and spend more time, don't look to throw your wicket, don't look to play crazy shots and get out. After that discussion I could see the change in the attitude. The more practice you give them, the more comfortable they feel in the middle. That again is one area we still need to keep working on. The focus will then be on handling short balls.
If he starts bowling, he will get into the team. The team requires him to bowl, especially when we are touring. I am talking about even in Test cricket - if he starts bowling, that will be extremely useful. In the past few months he has shown how much he is improving as a batsman. He has done really well as a batsman in ODIs and T20s. He is somebody, again, who is capable of winning you a Test match, in any situation, against any bowling attack. You need those kind of match-winners in your team.
This is an important series. We are playing against a really good team, which has done well in Sri Lanka, they have already shown that. As the batting unit, the change [for India] will be playing spin bowling a lot more and maybe dealing with reverse swing a lot more. These will be two areas of focus in whatever practice [time] we have. Unfortunately, we don't have enough time and will be only getting three days of practice before the first Test.
Yeah, I know. I was joking with Ashwin also, that that was done deliberately to build the series up. After that everything felt better. Because you keep worrying what if this happens, what if that happens. So failures, at times, teach you that nothing stops. Even after getting 36 all out, life did not stop, we did not stop laughing. The next night we had a team dinner, a lot of laughter, a lot of fun. That liberates you a little actually. You know that you can't get worse and you have handled it pretty well. Whatever happens, you can deal with it.
Nagraj Gollapudi is news editor at ESPNcricinfo