For the first three years with Indian cricket team, Sanjay Bangar worked as the batting coach, giving throwdowns to the players. He joined the team in the year 2014 during India tour to England and remains to be the only man from that tour who has been with the Indian team on every tour.
Ravi Shastri and Bharat Arun too came in the Indian dressing room but they had to make an exit for one year when Anil Kumble was appointed as Head Coach. R Sridhar too got replaced by Abhay Sharma and in between, even Shankar Basu, the key behind Virat Kohli’s fitness missed few tours but Bangar was the man who stayed there.
Every player now looks up to him and finally, the former Indian player was paid fruits of serving the nation when he was elevated to the post of Assistant Coach of Indian cricket team under Ravi Shastri. He was not the man to be talked about during the coach selection process and his promotion left everyone stunned, who were not in the know of things.
Kiran Joshi, the childhood coach of Indian cricket team too is a happy man as he said that Bangar deserved the promotion thoroughly,
“Sanjay thoroughly deserves this promotion to assistant coach as his performance and results speak volumes of his efforts. He is a low-key personality, very easily approachable and his consistent hard work with the Indian team has paid off. I expect Sanjay to stay as the batting coach, but his elevation has pleased me thoroughly. Sanjay’s elevation is like an endorsement from head coach Shastri, a certificate from him on Sanjay’s contribution to the team. I am confident he will do full justice to his new role,” Joshi told Mid-day.
Bangar seems to be a man who likes to do his work silently as he had an opportunity to get an elevation by applying for the post of Head Coach but this didn’t happen. He was happy to perform the role for which he was called in earlier. Though he served as Head Coach once in the year 2016 when India toured Zimbabwe but he never asked for elevation or else, he could have been one of the aspirants for the job last year and this year as well.
The Indian batsmen also enjoy his company. He is the one who himself starts the proceeding of giving throwdowns before passing it over to the other support staff. Three years of his duty of has seen him being given a contract for two more years till 2019 World Cup and we might surely see Indian batsmen improving their performance under his tutelage.