After much anticipation, The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) finally announced Team India’s next chief selector. Sunil Joshi, who wasn’t considered favourite for the job, is set to take over the charge soon and will head the panel for the next four years. He will be joined by former pacer Harvinder Singh in the panel that includes Sarandeep Singh, Devang Gandhi and Jatin Paranjpe.
While none of the players from the previous panel had played with captain Virat Kohli, Joshi did play with the India captain and also shared the dressing room with him.
Joshi and Kohli were teammates at Royal Challengers Bangalore in the inaugural season of the league. Joshi was one of the most experienced campaigners in the squad while Kohli had just led India U-19 to a title victory.
Joshi, who played his last international game in 2001, continued to play domestic cricket and played his final first-class game against Baroda – in the semi-final of Ranji Trophy. Karnataka had lost the game by seven wickets. He retired from competitive cricket in 2012.
Interestingly, Joshi took over as Hyderabad’s coach even before retirement. He has been into coaching since then. He has coached Jammu and Kashmir and most recently coach of Uttar Pradesh. He also coaches international sides like Bangladesh, Oman and the USA. In 2017, he had joined Bangladesh as spin bowling consultant and kept the position till World Cup 2019.
He had applied for the position of Team India’s bowling coach last year but the Kapil Dev-headed panel retained Bharat Arun in the position.
Also Read: Virender Sehwag Confidently Believes Virat Kohli Will Return To Form Quickly
Before the auction for IPL 2020, Joshi landed the high-profile job of the assistant coach of Kings XI Punjab – where he would have worked under Anil Kumble – but since he is now part of the national set-up, he will not be able to join KXIP.
He could be replaced as chief selector later this year if a former player with more Test caps joins the panel later this year.