The Indian cricket team is a unit that is filled with unknown tales; instances that took years to come out in the public. It wasn't until Sachin Tendulkar revealed in his book ‘Playing It My Way' that the world got to know how Greg Chappell wanted to throw Rahul Dravid under the bus as he approached Tendulkar to take up India's captaincy six months before the T20 World Cup. Or how MS Dhoni had indirectly revealed to Rishabh Pant before the 2019 World Cup semifinal that it would be his last tournament. How Yuvraj Singh, long after his cancer was detected, was coughing blood during the 2011 World Cup. Or that it was Tendulkar who proposed Dhoni's name to be India's captain before the first-ever T20 World Cup. Or how John Wright grabbed Virender Sehwag by his collar because he lost patience with the opener's habit of throwing away his wicket. The list just goes on and on.

Hence, keeping pace with stories that are yet to come out for public consumption, we present to you a tale featuring Sourav Ganguly, Vikram Rathour and Kohli. Rathour, the former batting India coach had the most perfect end to his tenure, signing off with India winning the T20 World Cup. Rathour, part of the support staff featuring Paras Mhambrey and headed by Dravid, had his moment under the sun as with a 7-run win over South Africa in the final, the collective dreams of the three coaches, players and a nation of 1.3 billion cricket fans were realised. The moment was even sweeter as it was 28 years ago that Rathour, Dravid and Mhambrey began their India careers together, and for life to have come full circle for them – from players to coach – qualifies for a once-in-a-lifetime script.

Long before he became a coach, Rathour was one of India's best batters. His India career may not have taken off in the way he would have wanted to – he played 6 Tests and 7 ODIs scoring 324 runs – but Rathour was a force to be reckoned with in the domestic circuit. So much so that Taruwar Kohli, the former India Under-19 batter and Virat Kohli's teammate from the 2008-winning batch in Kuala Lumpur, revealed a story as to how the bowler and the coach of the opposition team feared bowling to Rathour, at times conceding defeat even before the match started.

"As a player, I have heard about you that there was a time that the bowler and coach said, 'We won't play; match haar jayenge (we'll lose the game). That's how good you were on your day. I think it was a Bengal game. It was getting dark, and Himachal [Pradesh] were winning. You eventually won that game for your team so that is how good I have heard you were. I think Sachin paaji would be… in fact a lot of players. Sourav Ganguly was watching that game, so he saw the potential in you at that time. I have heard that you were a very good player against the short ball – playing pulls and hooks," Kohli said on his show 'Find a Way with Taruwar Kohli'.

Why Rathour's India career was cut short

The illusion that great players don't make great coaches was shattered by Dravid, who had a rather successful run as coach, winning the Asia Cup, Test series against Australia and England at home, reaching the final of the 2023 ODI World Cup and finally lifting the T20 World Cup. However, at the same time, there are exceptions. As good a coach that Rathour was, his India run was cut short in less than a year. Despite being good against the short ball – a technique that Indian batters still have the room to improve on, Rathour realised quickly that he was probably not cut for the highest level, where Dravid, Ganguly and Tendulkar excelled.

"It all boils down to the conditions. The ones we faced made you a player. Back in our days, and you'll recall, a lot of the matches used to be played on mats. Turf wickets were far and few. Turf ones would have a lot of bounce and that automatically develops your game against short bowling. In formative years, playing on those wickets, you have no choice but to play squarer. So that worked that well. And as it is, when you play at the international level, you should know how to play against the short ball. My struggle was mostly against seam bowling because even though I played a lot in Ludhiana which had seaming tracks, I had some technical flow which I didn't know," said Rathour.

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