I don't think Virat Kohli is going through a lean phase, especially in white-ball format: Vikram Rathour

Star Indian batter Virat Kohli hasn’t had the best of time with the bat in hand for the last couple of years. The whole cricketing world is still waiting for the 33-year-old’s 71st international century in the last two years. In the recently concluded series against the West Indies, Kohli hit a new low when for the first time since 2015, he hasn’t scored even a single fifty in a bilateral series.

Speaking about the no.3 not being able to get big runs, India’s current batting coach Vikram Rathour said that he doesn’t think Kohli is going through a lean phase and that there hasn’t been a conversation around this matter.

“There have been no specific conversations with him. I personally do not think Virat is going through a lean phase at least in this format, in T20Is and ODIs, he has done well for us lately. I understand he had a relatively poor series against the West Indies, but no conversations as such. He is batting well in the nets, we are happy with the kind of preparation he is putting in so no conversations, I am certain in one of the coming innings, he will bat well,” said Rathour in a press conference ahead of the T20I series.

The former Indian skipper had a disastrous ODI series against the Windies, wherein he could only manage 26 runs from three matches with scores of 18, eight, and zero. India’s number three will be looking forward to the T20I series against the same opposition that begins on Wednesday, February 16.

Vikram Rathour on India’s preparation for the upcoming T20 World Cup

Rathour also talked about how the team was looking forward to the preparations ahead of the World T20 in Australia later this year. India will be looking to perform well this time as they had to face an embarrassing group-stage exit from the T20 World Cup last year.

“That is the focus, we are looking towards the T20 World Cup in Australia, once we have our team, till the time we have everyone available, it is hard to say what everyone’s role is going to be, but so far, that is the focus. We have started our preparation for Australia, I do not think we have any issues looking at the batting we have,” he added.