India's new batting coach Sitanshu Kotak has said that the vast experience of captain Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli is such that he himself might end up learing a thing or two from the veteran batters. Kotak's appointment as India's new batting coach came after a disastrous run for the team that ended in them missing out on the World Test Championship final and at the centre of it was the perennially out of batting lineup.
Rohit and Kohli were at the forefront of this, with both batters finishing the 2024/25 season with the kind of averages that no one would've associated with them at their peak. "See, Rohit and Virat are very senior players. But even the players we have now, it is a lot more about sharing, a lot to try and understand how they are planning their games, where they think, and then if we can add something, that's how I think, if I can add value to 2 per cent, 5 per cent, that's a great thing," Kotak said answering queries in a pre-match press conference ahead of the third T20I against England on Tuesday.
"The amount of cricket they have played where they have performed, it won't be unfair to say there might be a lot of things for me to learn from them. That's the way this game goes. You have to be open, and you have to be ready to learn," he added.
‘I would have certain things in my mind…’
Kohli averaged 22.47 in 19 Test innings in the 2024/25 season, despite scoring a century in the first Test against Australia in Perth. Rohit, on the other hand, cut a sorry figure throughout the season and finished it with a scarcely believable average of 10.93 in a whopping 15 innings.
{{/usCountry}}Kohli averaged 22.47 in 19 Test innings in the 2024/25 season, despite scoring a century in the first Test against Australia in Perth. Rohit, on the other hand, cut a sorry figure throughout the season and finished it with a scarcely believable average of 10.93 in a whopping 15 innings.
{{/usCountry}}Kotak feels he will be willing to share his inputs with Virat and Rohit at the right time. "If they are in a mindset, during that point of time, if they are ready to take any inputs, yes. I would have certain things in my mind, and I will share, but it has to be the right time, and they should feel yes, they are ready for that," he said