The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has been mulling over the possibility of a new member to the men’s coaching staff, as reported by Cricbuzz, even though no discussion has been made by the board, it seems like the team management has been trying to strengthen their support staff.
The batting performance of India in the recent Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 hasn’t been up to the mark. They were bundled out for 150 in less than 50 overs in the first innings of the trip at the Optus Stadium in Perth, and the same issue continued in the second day-night pink-ball fixture at the Adelaide Oval.
In the third game on a solid-looking batting surface, India could only post 260 runs on the board, with 149 runs coming for the last four wickets. The top order struggled badly. Opener Yashasvi Jaiswal went for a flick to find the square fielder, while both Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli, going for a fancy booming drive, were caught at the slip position.
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In the fourth Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), the blue brigade got 369 in their first innings, which was a decent performance, but that was possible on the back of the 210 runs for the last five wickets.
India mulls addition of batting coach for Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli
But in the second innings, when they were needed to play out a couple of sessions, they fell like a pack of cards. Jaiswal cracked an 84-run mark in 208 balls with a strike rate of 40, while the next best score in the line-up was 30 from the wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant. None of the nine batters could get to double figures.
The same style of dismissals from Virat Kohli raised a few eyebrows on the coaching staff of India. The Delhi batter ended with 190 runs in nine innings at an average of 23.75 with just one century (100*) in the entire series, which came during the second innings of the opening game.
“I‘m no longer focusing on Kohli’s problem, but on the guy who was supposed to solve the problem, that is the batting coach. And if he can’t address these chronic problems that some of our batters have had, and these are mostly technical battles.” Sanjay Manjrekar expressed in a discussion on ESPNcricinfo.
The regular red-ball captain of India, Rohit Sharma, was absent from the Western Test, and on his return, he was locked in the middle order for the first two encounters because of the superb opening stand between KL Rahul and Jaiswal. But a couple of flop knocks pushed the veteran to get back to the opening spot for the fourth Test, but nothing worked out for the Mumbai batter, as he finished the series with 31 runs in five innings at 6.20.
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The report of Cricbuzz has claimed that a few names are being discussed for the additional batting coach, including the former domestic cricket heavyweight. The current management of India consists of Morne Morkel, the bowling coach Abhishek Nayar, the assistant coach alongside Ryan Ten Doeschate, and the fielding coach T Dilip, under the head coaching of Gautam Gambhir.
However, the involvement of the extra coach is not clear. But the team’s performance will again be reviewed by the BCCI after the end of the upcoming Champions Trophy 2025, which is scheduled to begin on February 19, as India will play all of their games at the Dubai International Stadium.