India's batting coach Sitanshu Kotak has revealed that 15 year old Vaibhav Suryavanshi needed no special preparation before his international debut, because the young batter was already mentally ready to play from the moment he was picked in the squad. Speaking to reporters ahead of the third T20 match between India and England, Kotak shared the thinking behind the team management's approach to handling the teenager.
Ready from the day of selection
Kotak made clear that Suryavanshi was not rushed into readiness just before the match, but had been prepared mentally from the day his name was announced in the squad. "He was ready to debut from the moment he was picked in the team. It is not that he became ready only before the last match," Kotak said. He added that the team management's approach was straightforward: "What mattered to us was that he plays the way he has always played. No special instructions were given to him about what to do or what not to do." In other words, the coaching staff deliberately avoided interfering with Suryavanshi's natural batting style, so that pressure would not make him abandon his instinctive game.
At 15 years and 99 days old, Suryavanshi became the youngest Indian to play international cricket. He made his historic debut in the second T20 against England last week.
A team in transition under a new captain
Kotak also acknowledged that the Indian team is currently going through a phase of transition. The side is now led by new captain Shreyas Iyer, and an experienced all-rounder like Hardik Pandya is currently not part of the squad. "Our effort is to perform better in all three departments, batting, bowling and fielding. From the last World Cup to the next World Cup two years away, and beyond that, how do we reach that level, because every team is trying to improve its performance," he said. His point was clear: the team should be judged on a long-term plan rather than just recent results.
After losing three matches, people started saying we are losing
Kotak also responded openly to the criticism following India's recent losses. "In the last two years we hadn't lost a single series. We won the T20 World Cup and the T20 Asia Cup, but after losing three matches people started saying we are losing. That is the nature of the game," he said. He acknowledged that the current phase is one of change: "Sometimes there is a period of transition. There is a new captain, Hardik is not in the team, and there is an effort to give chances to three or four new players." He also admitted, "We shouldn't have lost, but these things happen. Our team's effort is to keep improving its performance." The comments make clear that the team management is pursuing a long-term strategy of blooding new players and building a stronger side for the future, even if it means absorbing a few defeats along the way.
