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India's former skipper Virat Kohli failed to deliver with the bat in the three ODIs against West Indies. He was dismissed at the scores of 8, 18 & 0 in the three matches which aggregated to 26 runs at an average of 8.6, however Rohit Sharma-led India went on to win the series 3-0.
But for India's batting coach Vikram Rathour, Virat's form is still not in issue as he backed him to the hilt and expressed confidence that the superstar batter would be back among runs in the upcoming three-match T20 series against West Indies which will be played on February 16, 18 & 20.
Rathour said it does not mean lack of form as Kohli has been doing well in the nets.
"I don't think he's going through a lean phase. I understand he had a poor series against the West Indies (in ODIs) but no conversation as such," Rathour said in a media interaction in the build-up to the three-match T20I series beginning at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday.
In ODIs, Kohli last scored a century against the West Indies in August 2019, in Port of Spain and since then, he has had 10 50-plus scores but failed to convert them into a ton.
In the last 12 months, he has been part of nine ODIs and scored a total of 271 runs in them.
"He's batting really well in the nets and the kind of preparation he's putting in. We are waiting for... I'm certain that in one of these innings he will be back among runs," the batting coach said, strongly backing the former skipper.
Rathour felt the experiment to open with Rishabh Pant in T20Is is something which is undecided as of now.
“We haven’t really decided that yet. We still have a couple of days to go. We had a travel and rest day yesterday. Today is our first practice day. Once we get to look at the wicket and the kind of surface we are playing at, we will see. We have options available. KL is out, I understand. But we have Ishan (Kishan) and Ruturaj (Gaikwad) in the mix. So, we will see what we feel like and what the team management feels like once we get closer to the game," he said.
The series is seen as India's preparation for the T20 World Cup slated in Australia in October and Rathour said he's confident that the batters will put up a strong show Down Under.
"With the batting that we have I don't think we have any issues. All our batters are capable of batting well in those conditions.
"Of course that is the focus at the moment. We are working towards the World Cup in Australia...unfortunately we are struggling a little bit with the injuries at the moment, few people are missing out.
"Till we have everybody available it's difficult to make sure what their role going to be. But so far that's the focus. We have started our preparation for Australia," he said.
India squad for T20 series: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (Vice-captain), Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Surya Kumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Ravi Bishnoi, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, Mohd. Siraj, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel.
West Indies squad for T20 series: Kieron Pollard (captain), Nicholas Pooran (vice-captain), Fabian Allen, Darren Bravo, Roston Chase, Sheldon Cottrell, Dominic Drakes, Jason Holder, Shai Hope, Akeal Hosein, Brandon King, Rovman Powell, Romario Shepherd, Odean Smith, Kyle Mayers, Hayden Walsh Jr.
