We are looking to adapt: Indian batting coach explains change in batting approach at the T20 World Cup

Before the T20 World Cup started, India deployed a new approach where the batters went hard at the opposition from ball one. However, once the World Cup started, things changed, especially with the Australian pitches playing out their own whims, forcing the teams to resort to something different.

Watching India bat in the first two games of the tournament, the fans have been pretty amazed at how the Men in Blue have changed the complexion of their innings from the start to stop. Indian batting coach, Vikram Rathour highlighted why hard-hitting is not the way to go about on Australian pitches.

In the pre-match conference, Rathour said, “I don't think these are 200, 200-plus wickets, so we’ll need to adapt; I think we have done pretty well in that regard so far. We are looking to adapt. Of course, playing with intent is always the goal. But then we need to take into account the conditions that we are playing on, the surfaces we are playing on.”

Talking about Virat Kohli's controlled aggression that has paid dividends, Rathour added, “We pride ourselves to be a team that will take the conditions and situation into account and that's what we've been looking to do. The conditions, the situation demanded of him to play in a certain way and he’s done that. He’s a good enough player to change or adapt his game to whatever the team requires, and he's done that brilliantly so far. We know that he’ll carry on doing that.”

It will be interesting to see how India delivers when they face the mighty South African pace unit on Sunday evening in their third contest of the tournament, a result that can shape the face of the potential semi-finalists from Group 2.