Abhay Sharma named fielding coach of the India A side

Former Delhi Ranji star Abhay Sharma has been appointed as the fielding coach for Indian A side for the tour of New Zealand A starting 23rd of September. Legendary cricketer Rahul Dravid will take reign as the head coach of the Indian A team for the tour.

The 48-year-old has been Indian U19 side for some time now. Abhay was part of India‘s historic U19 win against England where the junior side whitewashed the hosts in all formats of the game. While the Colts won the Test series 2-0, they won the ODI series 5-0.

Abhay has been a prolific name in the domestic circuit, with the wicketkeeper-batsman playing for Delhi, Railways and Rajasthan. In the 89 first-class matches that he has played, he has scored around 4000 runs at an average of 35.

Karn Sharma’s development

The former wicketkeeper is famously known for shaping the career of the 19-year-old leggie Karn Sharma, who went on to become one of the bigger names in the Indian Premier League. The leggie was picked first in the 2007-08 season, where he represented the Railways. In his debut match, Karn scored a hundred while Abhay taught him leg-spin.

He was awarded a bigger role by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) as the fielding coach of the national team on tour to Zimbabwe in 2016. The Indian team, under his tutelage, won the T20I series 2-1, while sweeping the ODI series 3-0.

New Zealand A will play two unofficial Tests and five unofficial ODIs in India between September 23 to October 15 in Vijayawada and Vishakhapatnam. The senior New Zealand team is also touring India in October for 3 ODIS and 3 T20Is.

The India A team is already marred with controversies around Krishnappa Gowtham. The leg-spinner was found insulting Duleep Trophy, with the leggie preferring Karnataka Premier League to the national first-class tournament.

India A squad:

Karun Nair (C), Priyank Panchal, Ankit Bawne, Sudip Chatterjee, Shreyas Iyer, Mohammad Siraj, Rishab Pant, Shahbaz Nadeem, Ankit Rajpoot, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur, Ravikumar Samarth, Hanuma Vihari, Karn Sharma