5 interesting facts about Sairaj Bahutule, India's interim bowling coach for Sri Lanka series
It's a transition period in Indian men's cricket, not just for players but also for coaches. The upcoming tour of Sri Lanka will begin this process, with Gautam Gambhir taking over from Rahul Dravid as the head coach with a new staff.
Abhishek Nayar and Ryan ten Doeschate will join him as assistant coaches before officially being appointed as batting and bowling coaches, respectively. But there is still little clarity the bowling coach. Former South African pacer Morne Morkel seems to be the outright favorite but he'll only join the team after the tour.
So temporarily, India have brought in Sairaj Bahutule as the bowling coach for the tour. The former Mumbai leg-spinner was a household name among domestic cricket enthusiasts in the 2000s but is little known now.
Below are five facts about him to get you acquainted:
#1 Sairaj Bahutule is a Ranji Trophy legend
A brilliant leg-spinner and a master of using the bouncy tracks, Bahutule is a well-respected figure in the Mumbai circles. Those who played with him or immediately after him, consider him one of the best players produced by the city.
He played a whopping 188 First-Class matches, taking 630 wickets at 26, which was a brilliant average for an attacking leggie. He was also an accomplished batter with 6176 runs to his name at 31.83 and played many crucial lower-order knocks.
In the Ranji Trophy alone, he picked up 405 wickets on record, putting him 10th in the all-time highest wicket-takers list for the tournament, two ahead of Bishan Singh Bedi. Even in the current era, he'd be considered an all-round match-winner.
#2 Recovered from a near-fatal accident in early life
Now, if you thought that Bahutule's numbers were impressive, the story behind it was even more remarkable. He was 17 when he was involved in a near-fatal car accident, which took the life of his friend Vivek Singh.
Bahutule went into a coma, broke his femur, and needed to have a steel rod inserted in his leg. Somehow, after a lot of persistence from his father, Vasant, a former cricketer for Maharashtra, Bahutule returned to cricket.
"That situation made me a determined player and a person," he told ESPNcricinfo. "Every day I would wake up and just wanted to work extremely hard and achieve something. The steel rod was removed a year after my accident as as it used to hurt my glute area, and then I joined BCA-Mafatlal camp headed by coach Frank Tyson. That was a turning point; that camp was where I got my physical fitness levels high and got stronger.
"During running and training, my leg used to hurt, but I overcame it. I used to train for about seven hours in a day; we used to have practice in the morning and then later in the evening. In the evening, I used to make the extra effort of going to the gym to get stronger," he added.
Everything changed when he picked 19 wickets in three matches in an Under-19 tournament in Mumbai. The legendary Dilip Vengsarkar spotted him and pushed for his selection in the senior Mumbai team.
#3 Played 10 internationals for India
Soon, Bhatule was playing for India under-19 and picking more wickets. He was also involved in the famous match where Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli put on the record 664-run stand in the Harris Shield, though he was on the opposition side.
However, he didn't take much time to be their teammate at Mumbai. A 13-wicket match haul in the Irani Trophy (1997-98) earned him an ODI debut for India.
He played seven games in the next few months but picked up an unimpressive two wickets on some infamously flat tracks. He got two Tests against Australia and Sri Lanka in 2001 after an excellent first-class season but couldn't impress again.
Then, when his career seemed over, he was called up for the 2003-2004 TVS Cup where a wicketless performance and 11 (13) with the bat became his last scoreboard contribution to Indian cricket as a player. After that, it became perenially difficult to break into the team where Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh ruled the 11s.
He switched allegiances from Mumbai to Maharashtra and then to Vidarbha before retiring in January 2013.
#4 He was caught up in an "ethics" controversy
After taking coaching jobs in Kerala and Vidarbha after his retirement Bahutule accepted the role with Bengal only a few days after he was appointed coach of the Mumbai Under-23 side. Vengsarkar, who was the vice president of the Mumbai Cricket Association at the time, wasn't happy.
"To put it bluntly, Bahutule has been unethical in his approach, especially when we had appointed him for a salary that was agreed upon and he had been coaching the Under-23 squad for the last two weeks," Vengsarkar told the Times of India.
"At the MCA, we were happy when he showed a lot of interest in coming to Mumbai after his stint with Vidarbha and later Kerala as coach. We were keen to have as many former Mumbai players, captains under the same umbrella as we could, for they are very much aware of the work ethics of a Mumbai cricketer.
"That he would do something like this behind our back is unimaginable. If he wanted to coach a Ranji team, why did he leave Vidarbha and then Kerala, or was he asked to leave? If he is getting a job to coach a Ranji side, then would he leave the same team halfway through if he is offered to coach say Bangladesh or Zimbabwe? The whole episode has shown him in extremely poor light."
Who knew that the same Vengsarkar who discovered Bahutule's talent would be calling him out with strong words only a few years later?
#5 Has been at the NCA for a long time and was part of VVS Laxman's staff
Now, for his coaching credentials, apart from domestic teams, Bhatule has had a short stint at Rajasthan Royals too, as a spin bowling coach. He took the same role at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru in November 2021.
Since then, he has been on multiple assignments with the senior side under the tutelage of VVS Laxman after he replaced Rahul Dravid as the NCA chief.
Their first assignment was the tour of Ireland in mid-2022, followed by a tour of New Zealand later that year and then managing the men's and women's teams at the Asian Games in 2023, with Dravid unavailable in each case. This would be Bahutule's first stint with a first-string Indian side with the first-choice Head Coach.