Rathod believes in scoring runs in tons

By Paritosh Pramanik

LAST season’s Duleep Trophy ‘snub due to lack of big runs’ has rankled him and Vidarbha mainstay Yash Rathod is determined to correct that ‘poor score’ this season.

With three successive centuries under his belt from four games this Ranji season, Rathod has made it a point to score runs in tons and attract selectors’ attention. Rathod scored 125 in Vidarbha’s innings and 88 runs win over Himachal Pradesh last Saturday. The huge century helped Vidarbha post mammoth 575 in their first innings as record huge victory. Rathod became only the second batter in the history of Vidarbha cricket to score three back-to-back centuries after former captain and India opener Faiz Fazal did so in 2017-2018 season.

Rathod has been the middle-order mainstay for Vidarbha for a few years now and the left-handed batter wants to showcase his talent at the bigger stage, starting with Duleep Trophy.

“Last year, I think I missed the Duleep Trophy berth as I did not score centuries, eventhough I scored good runs,” said Rathod after Vidarbha’s win over Himachal.

Last Ranji season, he had hammered 491 runs in 10 innings at an average of 49 and at a strike rate of 54.38. This included a century and three half centuries. Fast forward to this season, the bespectacled southpaw has already clobbered 442 runs from seven innings. This despite starting the season with a duck and five runs in Vidarbha’s first match against Andhra in Nagpur. 

With three centuries and a fifty, his average at present is an impressive 63.14 and has faced 642 deliveries.

The most attractive part of his innings is that Rathod has hit just four sixes as compared to 35 boundaries so far.

The left-hander believes in building innings and never goes for big hits. Last year he has slammed only two sixes and 61 boundaries.

When asked about his plans, Rathod said he wanted to play to the ground as much as possible.

“I love playing around the ground. That’s my strength. Since my childhood days and club cricket, I believed in finding gaps and hitting through the ground. I love to build innings at a decent pace without halting the progress of the team’s score,” Rathod explained.

A big fan of India coach Gautam Gambhir, Rathod wants to continue in same way so that Vidarbha finish at the top this season.

Rathod and captain Akshay Wadkar have a good co-ordination in the middle as the two have scored two century stands in Ranji. They have scored 158 against Madhya Pradesh last season, and this year, the two have amassed 107 against Himachal Pradesh.

“I am a big fan of GG’s (Gautam Gambhir) batting style. He is also a left-hander and loves playing spin. I too love playing spinners and collect runs from the tweakers,” he concluded.

A lot would depend on Rathod’s roseate form if Vidarbha would go one step further this season.