BCCI to name Sairaj Bahutule as interim bowling coach

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) are all set to announce Sairaj Bahutule as the interim bowling coach for the upcoming tour to Sri Lanka. The officials have held talks with Morne Morkel, and he is the favourite to join on a full-time basis during the home series against Bangladesh. In the meantime, Bahutule, who is also associated with the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru, will be serving the men’s team.

He will travel with the Indian team and the rest of the coaching group on July 22. Meanwhile, as per Cricbuzz, the appointment of Abhishek Nayar, Ryan ten Doeschate and T Dilip is also sealed and will be announced in the press conference that is scheduled on the day of the travel. Gautam Gambhir will also be addressing the press conference along with chief selector Ajit Agarkar.

Meanwhile, BCCI also had the option of appointing Troy Cooley as bowling coach, since the 58-year-old is also part of the NCA. However, given that spinners will be more effective in Sri Lanka, the officials decided on Bahatule, who has played two Test matches and eight ODIs for the country and picked up three and two wickets respectively.
Morkel, on the other hand, has travelled to Pretoria to attend his unwell father. BCCI will have a couple of months to finalize the deal with him as he was head coach Gambhir’s first choice as a bowling coach. The former South Africa cricketer has worked with the southpaw at Lucknow Super Giants and also played under his captaincy in Kolkata Knight Riders.

Gambhir also managed to get Nayan and Ten Doeschate as assistant coaches respectively. The former India cricketer spent time with the duo in the IPL and was impressed with their workload and the things they brought to the table. There were reports of BCCI not accepting Gambhir’s proposals as they preferred Indian coaches but ultimately, they went with the head coach’s choices.

India's squad for T20Is: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Ꮪhubman Gill (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, Riyan Parag, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, Mohd. Siraj.