3 Former players who can be India's batting coach across formats

Managing a nation’s cricket team is not easy, especially in India, which is probably the most passionate nation about this sport. Being the coach requires less on-the-ground physical work at the international level and more focus on the mental and emotional aspects of the players in the team.

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The batting coach's job roles include working on the batters’ techniques when needed too, along with helping them manage their emotions while batting on the pitch. 

India, traditionally has not been a nation to keep a dedicated batting coach for the team. They won the 2011 Cricket World Cup and 2013 Champions Trophy under the guidance of Gary Kirsten and Duncan Fletcher respectively without the services of any batting coach. 

It was not the case until 2014 when Sanjay Bangar was first hired for this role. He was followed by Vikram Rathour and currently the team does not have any specialized batting coach. Let us take a look at the candidates who might be taking up this role.

1. Virender Sehwag 

One of the best batters to have played for India across formats, Sehwag can be an ideal candidate for the position of batting coach in this Indian side. The team is currently struggling with its batting. India has traditionally been a batting powerhouse, always having multiple match-winners with that bat in the team. 

But in the last couple of series, it can be seen that India has struggled to bat, especially in critical situations. Sehwag had an aggressive style of cricket and was the prime example of offense as the best defense. He used to hit prime bowlers with ease and can be helpful to the current Indian batters to rectify the current situation. He had shown interest in being the coach for the team, making him a good choice for the same.

2. Sanjay Bangar 

He was the first batting coach India has ever had and his journey was surely phenomenal. He remained the batting coach of the Indian team from 2014 to 2019. In his tenure, the Indian batters were sensational and it has been said that the Indian batting unit scored the most runs and held the best batting average compared to any other team across formats. 

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This is the same time when Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma reached their peak in white-ball formats and were scoring runs just for fun. The batting unit of the Indian team is struggling right now and Bangar can be the perfect person to help the team recover, as he has done before.

3. VVS Laxman 

Laxman has been with the team’s set-up for a long while now and comes to fill in whenever needed with the team. He accompanies the team’s coach on tours and series when the team’s head coach is not able to accompany them. During his time as a player, he was regarded as one of the best players with a sound technique playing some of the most memorable knocks on the team. 

His cricketing brain along with the familiarity he holds with the team’s set-up makes him one of the best choices out there for this vacant position in the Indian team. He can help the Indian batters come out of this slumber and start scoring well, as they used to do it before.

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