New Delhi: Legendary West Indian batsman, Viv Richards, has offered to work as India’s batting consultant, saying he can help the batsmen sort out their perennial weakness against short-pitch bowling.

“I could be a good consultant where batsmanship is concerned and especially where you have such aggressive fast bowling, I can be a little help at some point to teams,” said the Caribbean great, considered one of the most aggressive batsmen the game has ever seen.

“I’m available, maybe they (India) will call me sometime to know how to handle such aggression,” the former West Indies captain told a news channel.

For the second successive time in the Twenty20 World Cup, Indian batsmen’s technical incompetence against short-pitched stuff was thoroughly exposed and the side crashed out of the event without winning a single Super Eight match.

Both Australian and West Indian bowlers exploited this particular chink in India’s armour and Richards felt that Dhoni and his teammates needed some thorough practice against short-pitched bowling.

“The Australians did put the wind up India that particular day. I don’t think the Indian batsmen are accustomed to steep bounce. When the ball is bouncing that high, it needs some courage to tackle,” Richards said. “What India can learn from the past is to get some practice against the real aggressive stuff.”

Richards did not subscribe to the view that Indian Premier League (IPL) was to be blamed for the team’s dismal show in the Caribbean.

“India came into the tournament with the most T20 matches, taking in the IPL factor. I don’t think it’s an excuse in any way. I was in South Africa in 2007 where they won the first T20 tournament and they played magnificently,” Richards said. “Sometimes the ball is in your court, sometimes it’s not. What I think India’s got to do at this stage is to see the way the Australians bowled at them and hopefully try and come to grips with the bounce and make the necessary adjustments.”

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