ਵਿਕਰਮ ਰਾਠੌਰਵਿਕਰਮ ਰਾਠੌਰ

Vikram Rathour (born 26 March 1969) is a former Indian cricketer and coach from Jalandhar in Punjab. A right-handed opening batsman, he scored heavily in domestic cricket for Punjab, played six Tests and seven one-day internationals for India in 1996 and 1997, and then built a longer and more successful career as a coach. As India's batting coach from September 2019 to July 2024, he helped the team win the 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup, and he has since coached Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League and Sri Lanka's national team.

Early life in Jalandhar

Rathour was born on 26 March 1969 in Jalandhar, a city in Punjab's Doaba region known across India as the Sports City for its sports goods industry and its hockey tradition. Jalandhar has produced cricketers, hockey players and athletes for generations, and Rathour came through its cricket system to reach the Punjab state team. His first-class career, spent with Punjab and later Himachal Pradesh, ran from the late 1980s to the end of the 2002-03 season.

He was part of the Punjab side that won the Ranji Trophy in 1992-93 under coach Bishan Singh Bedi, the former India captain and spin bowler. That title remains one of the proudest moments in Punjab cricket, and Rathour's steady opening batting was part of the side that won it.

A mountain of domestic runs

Rathour's reputation rests on what he did in domestic cricket. In 146 first-class matches he scored 11,473 runs at an average of 49.66, with 33 centuries and 49 half-centuries and a highest score of 254. He was known for his play through the covers and for rocking onto the back foot to pull, and for the patience to build long innings. In one-day cricket he was more modest, with 3,161 runs in 99 List A matches.

What marks his domestic record out is what happened after he lost his India place. Instead of fading, he scored more than 1,000 first-class runs in each of the 1998-99 and 1999-00 seasons, when he was already in his thirties. Few Indian batsmen of his generation matched that weight of runs at home without turning it into a long international career.

Why did his India career last only a year?

Rathour's international chance came in 1996. He made his one-day debut against Pakistan at Sharjah on 15 April 1996 and his Test debut against England at Birmingham on 6 June 1996. In six Tests he scored 131 runs, with a highest score of 44 against South Africa at the Wanderers, and in seven one-day internationals he scored 193 runs, with two fifties and a highest score of 54. He never made a Test fifty, let alone a century.

The problem was the swinging ball in English conditions. On the 1996 tour of England, Dominic Cork repeatedly drew him into edging to the slip cordon, and he found life difficult against the moving ball. He was also a consistent scorer against county sides on that tour, which showed the ability was there, but the Test chances did not come again in the same way. After a disappointing tour of South Africa in 1996-97, he faded from the side. His last Test came on 16 January 1997 against South Africa, and his last one-day international on 15 February 1997 against Zimbabwe.

Selector, then coach

Rathour retired from all forms of cricket at the end of the 2002-03 season, with his retirement announced in November 2003. He stayed in the game, coaching Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, and before the 2017-18 domestic season he was appointed Himachal Pradesh's Director of Cricket. He was also part of the Kings XI Punjab coaching staff in the Indian Premier League.

In September 2012 he was appointed a national selector from the North Zone, and he served on the selection panel for four years, from 2012 to 2016, under chairman Sandeep Patil. The selector's job gave him a close look at the next generation of Indian batsmen, and it was a natural step towards the coaching role that would define the second half of his career.

Batting coach of India, 2019 to 2024

On 5 September 2019 Rathour was appointed India's batting coach, replacing Sanjay Bangar, and he joined the team before the home series against South Africa. He was reappointed in November 2021, and his tenure ran from September 2019 to July 2024. Working under head coach Rahul Dravid for much of that time, he worked closely with young batsmen such as Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill and KL Rahul.

The results were the best of his career. India won a famous Test series in Australia in 2020-21, finished runners-up at the 2023 ICC Men's Cricket World Cup at home, and won the 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup in Barbados, beating South Africa in the final. His contract ended after that T20 World Cup win, and he left the national setup as a World Cup-winning coach, a very different ending from his playing career.

Rajasthan Royals, New Zealand and Sri Lanka

Rathour's coaching career continued straight away. In September 2024 he worked as batting coach for New Zealand for their one-off Test against Afghanistan, and the same month Rajasthan Royals appointed him as their batting coach for the 2025 Indian Premier League season, reuniting him with Rahul Dravid, who had become the franchise's head coach. He stayed on with the Royals as lead assistant coach.

In January 2026 Sri Lanka Cricket appointed him as batting coach of the Sri Lanka men's team on a consultancy basis, from 18 January to 10 March, with a focus on preparing the side for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup in 2026. For a Jalandhar opener whose own international playing career lasted barely a year, it was a measure of how far his coaching had travelled: from Punjab's domestic circuit to the coaching rooms of three national teams and an Indian Premier League franchise.