The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is searching for the Test batting consultant, and the former Indian batting coach Sanjay Bangar is in the line of this contest.
Former South African cricketer Neil McKenzie is officially handling the role of limited-overs batting consultant for the Bangladesh national cricket team. However, in the absence of Test batting consultant, McKenzie is also looking after this role. While the South African is not interested in maintaining this entire batting consultant role of this team for a long time, the BCB is expecting him to continue this role till they find out the Test batting consultant.
BCB chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury said, “McKenzie is looking after the red-ball cricket despite being a white ball consultant and till we get a batting consultant for Test cricket we are expecting him to do the job [in red ball].”
Sanjay Bangar has good experiences in coaching
While the BCB is searching for the Test batting consultant, Sanjay Bangar is in the contention along with the few other names. Former Indian all-rounder Bangar has good experiences as the batting coach in international cricket as he was India’s batting coach from August 2014 to the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. In the late moment of that journey, he also served as the assistant coach of the Indian team.
Before the batting coach role for the Indian team, Bangar had the coaching experiences for India A and several IPL teams (Kochi Tuskers Kerala and Kings XI Punjab).
However, the BCB has also clarified that they have only spoken with Bangar, but nothing has been finalised yet.
Chowdhury claimed, “We have spoken with Bangar [for Test batting consultant] but nothing is finalized yet. We are also negotiating with few others as well [for the Test batting consultant post].”
Bangladesh had the plan to play the second and final Test of the two-match Test series in their third and final leg of Pakistan tour from 5th April (at National Stadium, Karachi). But it has been postponed in the wake of coronavirus outbreak. This Test series is the part of 2019–21 ICC World Test Championship.
Bangladesh has the next plan to play the Test series against Australia at home in June 2020. The two-match Test series will also be the part of the 2019–21 ICC World Test Championship. So, the BCB has enough time to decide on Test batting consultant.