New Delhi: Former England batter Kevin Pietersen has expressed interest in joining the Indian men’s support staff as a batting coach. The development comes amidst reports of India looking to add a batting coach to their existing support staff.
As of now, Gautam Gambhir is the head coach, with Abhishek Nayar and Ryan Ten Doeschate as assistant coaches, with Morne Morkel and T. Dilip as bowling and fielding coaches respectively. Reacting to two reports via X, Pietersen wrote he’s ‘available’ to take up the position.
It also comes at a time when two poor batting performances led to India losing 0-3 to New Zealand at home and then suffering a 1-3 defeat to Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series. As a result, India also lost out on a spot in the 2025 ICC World Test Championship final, to be now played between Australia and South Africa at Lord’s in June.
In 104 Tests, Pietersen scored 8181 runs at an average of 47.29, including 23 centuries and 35 fifties. In 136 ODIs he amassed 4440 runs at an average of 40.73, including nine centuries and 25 fifties. In 37 T20Is, he scored 1176 runs at an average of 37.94, including seven fifties.
He also won the 2010 Men’s T20 World Cup title with England and emerged as the Player of the Tournament. In the past coaching regimes, India had a designated men’s team batting coach. Sanjay Bangar was India’s batting coach from the 2014 tour of England to September 2019. After that, Vikram Rathour took over and served in the role till the 2024 Men’s T20 World Cup triumph.
Moreover, the form slump of captain Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who is constantly getting out to balls outside the off-stump, and Shubman Gill having a patchy overseas record has meant having a designated batting coach is the need of the hour. In India, W.V Raman, Sitanshu Kotak, and Hrishikesh Kanitkar are some of the options who can step into the role if needed.
(IANS)
