Sitanshu Kotak appointed as batting coach for England T20is after being in charge of a number of India A tours.
Sitanshu Kotak set to join India team as batting coach ahead of England T20Is.
Former batsman and captain of Saurashtra Sitanshu Kotak is expected to become a batting coach for the Indian men’s team. Beginning on January 22, Kotak, 52, will open the five-match home T20I series against England.
Kotak has been the batting coach at the National Cricket Academy since 2019. He retired in 2013 after more than 20 years of playing in the top division. In addition, Kotak coached India A on a number of trips and was VVS Laxman’s assistant coach during the latter’s recent tenure as head coach of India’s bilateral white-ball matches.
The coaching staff, which is headed by Gautam Gambhir, who assumed leadership as the all-format head coach in August of last year, will have Kotak as its fifth assistant. Three assistant coaches were brought in by Gambhir at the time: former South Africa fast bowler Morne Morkel (bowling coach), former Mumbai and India all-rounder Abhishek Nayar, and former East Sussex and Netherlands captain Ryan ten Doeschate. T Dilip was kept on as the fielding coach while Rahul Dravid was in charge.
In order to evaluate India’s terrible run of series losses—which began with the white-ball loss in Sri Lanka, followed by an unprecedented 3-0 loss in the Test series against New Zealand at home, and then a 3-1 loss to Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy—the BCCI held a review meeting in Mumbai last weekend.
The main cause of those losses was the batters’ declining form and subsequent mistakes, which also contributed significantly to the Test team’s exclusion from the World Test Championship final. It is acknowledged that one of the important topics covered at the review meeting was hitting.