NEW DELHI: India assistant coach Abhishek Nayar is now on a sticky wicket as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has added Sitanshu Kotak to the support staff as a batting coach. The Indian cricket board didn’t have a “batting coach” under head coach Gautam Gambhir but Nayar is understood to have been discharging those duties during the team’s recent assignments.
During the BCCI review meeting, the role of the support staff was discussed and it’s understood that coach Gambhir had asked for a specialist batting coach during a discussion with the top brass.
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During the net sessions in Australia, Nayar was largely working with the players not in the Playing XI and had extended batting sessions with the lower-order and bowlers. In Melbourne, Nayar worked extensively on Mohammed Siraj’s batting and had a long session with Shubman Gill, who wasn’t in the XI, during the Lunch break. Even in Sydney, he remained on side-arm duties during the team’s only practice session before the New Year Test.
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Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar questioned the role of support staff when India lost the series 3-1, and clearly wasn’t pleased with the way batters had performed.
“Aapke coaching staff kya kar rahe the? (What was your coaching staff doing in Australia?) Your bowling coach and your batting coach… your batting coach, in particular, against New Zealand when we were bowled for 46, and the way we were defeated in the remaining matches. Batting main koi dum nahi tha (There was no punch in the batting). Here also our batting was not strong enough, so questions should be asked what have you guys done? Why can’t we see any improvement?” questioned Gavaskar in a chat with the broadcaster.
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It is learnt that the BCCI top brass too felt the need for a batting specialist and Kotak’s addition is seen as an attempt to fix those issues. The former Saurashtra cricketer has been part of the India A and National Cricket Academy (NCA) set-ups for a very long time and has worked with a lot of young players during the A tours.
India’s coaching staff is likely to be reviewed after the Champions Trophy and it will not be a surprise if some members of the support staff are shown the door.
Gambhir, Nayar (assistant coach), Ryan ten Doeschate (assistant coach), T Dilip (fielding coach), Morne Morkel (bowling coach), Kotak (batting coach) are currently part of the coaching group and some movement can be expected for India’s tour of England in June.