Shashikanth to coach Karnataka, Anil Kumar to be his deputy

Former Karnataka batsman’s Shashikanth and GK Anil Kumar are set to take up the role of head coach and assistant coach respectively for the Karnataka Ranji team. They replace J Arunkumar and Mansoor Ali Khan, who were highly successful in their 5-year stint with the stateside.

The 51-year Shashikanth led Karnataka to an Irani Trophy title in 1996-97 before retiring from the game two years later in 1999. He won 51 first-class caps and 16 List A caps in which he scored 2397 and 538 runs respectively. His deputy, Anil Kumar, has played 5 games apiece in first-class and List A cricket. He turned out for the Rockstars team in the Karnataka Premier League in 2014.

The Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) acknowledged the contributions of the departing duo of Arunkumar and Mansoor Ali Khan, and said the decision to appoint the new coaches was a “unanimous decision” taken by the managing committee of the KSCA.

“They (Shashikanth and Anil Kumar) have been coaches of various age groups of the state for more than a decade,” KSCA said in a release on April 26. “The KSCA also acknowledges the contribution of the former coaches Mr J Arun Kumar and Mansoor Ali Khan for their stint as coaches of the senior state team for the last five seasons.”

The 42-year old Arunkumar, who played 109 first-class games and a 100 List A matches, is a highly regarded coach in the domestic circuit. He recently joined Kings XI Punjab as the batting coach for the 2017 season of IPL, where he will work alongside his ex-teammate at Indian Airlines: R Sridhar.

His finest achievements as the coach will be his treble titles of Ranji Trophy, Irani Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy in the season of 2013/14. Karnataka repeated the feat the following season, again under Arunkumar.

In the 2016/17 season, Karnataka lost their quarter-final game against Tamil Nadu. The preceding season, though, Karnataka failed to reach the knock stages.

It will be interesting to see if the new appointees will be able to live up to the high standards set by the departing coaches.