CKM Dhananjai back as team analyst for India, replaces Ashish Tulli

Before India heads to South Africa, the last minute change has been made in the team’s support staff with analyst CKM Dhananjai coming back into the fold, replacing Ashish Tulli. According to reports, it is understood that the team management made a specific request to get Dhananjai back in order to travel with the “best support staff and technology support possible” as the next year features tough tours of South Africa, England and Australia.

Dhananjai was the team analyst in all of India’s successful campaigns in ICC tournaments. He was part of the staff when the team won the World T20 in 2007, the World Cup in 2011 and the Champions Trophy in 2013. He was also part of the support staff when India reached the No. 1 Test ranking in 2009.

He has also been the analyst of the defending IPL champions Mumbai Indians. However, he will now have to give the role up as part of BCCI regulations to avoid conflict of interest, as reported by Cricinfo.

Dhananjai is a vice president of SportsMechanics, a technology and analytics company set up by S Ramakrishnan, the first analyst India had. SportsMechanics provides analytics support to many sports team, including Mumbai Indians.

Tulli, formerly with Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association, was brought in when Anurag Thakur was the BCCI president. Until then, a SportsMechanics representative used to travel with the national team. Despite Tulli coming in, India retained the back-end support of SportsMechanics.

In 2016, though, India cut ties with Sports Mechanics and moved to Agaram InfoTech Pvt. Ltd., who were technology partners of Chennai Super Kings among other teams. Now, though, on the insistence of the team management, India have re-established their ties with with Dhananjai and SportsMechanics.

The Tour commences on January 5th and will go on till February 24th. India will face the Proteas in 3 Tests, 6 ODIs and 3 T20Is.