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 the coaching staff of the national side between 2014 and 2019. While he started out as the batting coach, he was promoted to Assistant Coach in 2017 when Ravi Shastri took charge of the Indian team. During Bangar’s tenure, Team India registered their first-ever Test series win in Australia and enjoyed a healthy win-loss ratio in all formats of the game. Moreover, top Indian cricketers like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have all credited Bangar with bringing about an improvement in their batting. Quite recently, in an interview with Rediff.com, he spoke about his journey working alongside the 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 the interview, Sanjay Bangar praised Ravi Shastri by saying that the 1983 World Cup-winning cricketer “is big on playing with an aggressive and courageous mindset”. When asked about the improvement in Indian batting during his regime, Bangar said that it was Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli who wanted to take the five-bowler route in Test matches, thus making batsmen take up the added responsibility of performing well. He said that the primary goal of Shastri and Kohli was to give the team its best chance of taking 20 wickets in a match. Sanjay Bangar cited the same reason as to how Indian batsmen started converting their centuries to big 100s.  

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

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

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Image credits: AP and BCCI.TV