Who is Sairaj Bahutule - the former cricketer likely to be India's bowling coach in Sri Lanka?
Former India leg-spinner Sairaj Bahutule is set to travel to Sri Lanka as Team India's bowling coach for the upcoming white-ball series. Former South African pacer Morne Morkel's name has been doing the rounds as India's new bowling coach. However, he is said to be unavailable for the Sri Lanka tour.
India will play three T20Is and three ODIs in Sri Lanka from July 27 to August 7. The tour will be the first assignment for Gautam Gambhir as Team India's head coach. As per reports, he will be assisted by Abhishek Nayar and Ryan ten Doeschate, T Dilip will be the fielding coach, and Bahutule the bowling coach.
Speaking about the last mentioned name, the 51-year-old is a former bowling all-rounder who represented India and Mumbai. Bahutule played only two Tests and eight ODIs for India. He claimed three wickets in Test matches at an average of 67.66 and two in ODIs, averaging 141.50. A handy batter, he scored 21* in his debut Test - the iconic clash against Australia in Chennai in 2001.
While he failed to make a mark on the international stage, Bahutule was a legend in domestic cricket. In 188 first-class matches, he claimed 630 wickets at an average of 26, with 27 five-fers and four 10-wicket match hauls. With the bat, he scored 6,176 runs at an average of 31.83, with nine hundreds and 26 fifties. Bahutule also took 197 wickets and scored 1367 runs in 143 List-A games.
As per a report in Times of India, the former cricketer serves as bowling coach at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru. He has also been the spin bowling coach of the Rajasthan Royals (RR) apart from coaching Bengal, Gujarat, Vidarbha, and Kerala's domestic teams.
Sairaj Bahutule was in the opposition during Tendulkar-Kambli's mammoth 664-run stand
During their school days back in 1988, Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli featured in a then-record partnership of 664 runs, representing Shardashram Vidyamandir against St Xavier’s High School. Bahutule was among the bowlers at the receiving end of the brilliant stand. He registered figures of 0/182 from 27 luckless overs.
A couple of years later, Bahutule suffered severe injuries in a car accident, which caused the death of Vivek Singh, son of legendary ghazal singers Jagjit Singh and Chitra Singh. A steel rod had to be inserted into his broken leg. He, however, recovered admirably and went on to become one of Mumbai's greatest all-rounders.