Ravi Shastri, Virat Kohli's call of 5 bowlers in Tests made batsmen responsible: S Bangar

Former Indian all-rounder Sanjay Bangar served as part of coaching staff of national side between 2014 and 2019. While he started out as batting coach, he was promoted to Assistant Coach in 2017 when Ravi Shastri took charge of Indian team. During Bangar’s tenure, Team India registered ir first-ever Test series win in Australia and enjoyed a healthy win-loss ratio in all formats of game. Moreover, top Indian cricketers like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have all credited Bangar with bringing about an improvement in ir batting. Quite recently, in an interview with Rediff.com, he spoke about his journey working alongside likes of Ravi Shastri and Indian captain Virat Kohli.

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Sanjay Bangar talks about working with Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli

In interview, Sanjay Bangar praised Ravi Shastri by saying that 1983 World Cup-winning cricketer “is big on playing with an aggressive and courous mindset”. When asked about improvement in Indian batting during his regime, Bangar said that it was Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli who wanted to take  five-bowler route in Test matches, thus making batsmen take up  added responsibility of performing well. He said that primary goal of Shastri and Kohli was to give team its best chance of taking 20 wickets in a match. Sanjay Bangar cited same reason as to how Indian batsmen started converting ir centuries to big 100s.  

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Sanjay Bangar believes that India’s tour of Australia in 2014-15 laid  foundation of a “brilliant run of success” which Virat Kohli and co continue to enjoy. 2014-15 series in Australia was also Virat Kohli’s first assignment as Test captain. According to Bangar, Indian captain started enjoying his leadership responsibilities from his maiden series as skipper itself, leading his team to “ascend many unconquered summits” in subsequent years.

When asked about how he worked with likes of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in improving ir batting, Sanjay Bangar said that he was able to forge a mutual trust with m. He said he used to spend long periods in nets to help m make mir adjustments to ir batting, based on strengths of opposition bowlers and playing conditions.

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Im credits: AP and BCCI.TV