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Need to be patient with likes of Gill and Iyer: Rathour
Pathan backs Gill, Iyer to retain their places in second Test against England
Visakhapatnam: The likes of Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer deserve patience amid their current poor run, said India batting coach Vikram Rathour on Wednesday, urging his wards to tackle England's aggression with intelligence in the second Test here.
England managed to shock the home favourites with their 'Bazball' approach with Ollie Pope scoring a match-winning 196.
Although Jaiswal played a knock of 80 in the first innings of his fifth Test, Gill and Iyer failed to fire, continuing their struggles in the format. While Gill has played 21 Tests, Iyer has appeared in 13 five-day games. Gill hasn't scored a 50 in his last nine Test innings. Iyer has been similarly off-colour. Rathour said he expects better application from the side's batters in the second Test where the home team will once again miss the services of the redoubtable Virat Kohli.
"There's a difference between playing with intent and playing attacking cricket. I want them to play with intent. If there is the opportunity to score some runs, they should take it," Rathour said.
"They need to decide by looking at the surface and conditions. So, the batters need to possess that intelligence as to which is the best or safest shot on the surface," he explained. Rathour felt India's batting performance in the second innings of the Hyderabad Test probably lacked discipline. "Could they have batted with more discipline? Maybe they could have. That's what they need to decide and come up with their plans," he observed. "But, they need to score runs by playing their shots, as you need to back your strengths. Batting is always about scoring runs. It's not about not getting out but how many runs you put on the board," he said.
Former all-rounder Irfan Pathan doesn't want either Gill or Iyer to be dropped from the Indian playing XI for the second Test against England as he feels their experience is crucial in the absence of senior players like Virat Kohli and KL Rahul. "A senior player like Virat Kohli's absence is a massive factor. Over that KL Rahul is also injured. So the team management has plenty to think about.
They need to think whether to give a chance to a new player straight away or wait a bit," Pathan said on the sidelines of the launch of Asian Legends League. "There is no doubt that these two boys (Gill and Iyer) haven't performed for quite sometime now but it not that they have never performed."
In case the team management decides to include a new batter, the toss up will be between Rajat Patidar and Sarfaraz, who has scored tons of runs in domestic cricket.
