Former first-class cricketer Abhay Sharma has been appointed as fielding coach of India A for the New Zealand A tour starting on September 23. He has been appointed along with Rahul Dravid who will be serving as head coach.
The 48-year old has been India”s U-19 coach for quite some time now. He was there on India U-19 tour of England which turned out to be historic. India U-19 whitewashed England U-19 across all forms of the game. They won the test series 2-0 and ODIS 5-0.
Abhay Sharma was a wicketkeeper who has played for Delhi, Railways, and Rajasthan in the domestic circuit. A veteran of 89 FC matches he has scored around 4000 runs at an average of 35.
He is known for shaping the career of Indian leg-spinner Karn Sharma. He spotted Karn as a 19-year-old in 2007-08, picked him in Railways squad and when Karn scored hundred on first-class debut he taught him to leg spin bowling
He was rewarded for his great service with junior players by a contract with Indian team on tour of Zimbabwe in June 2016. India beat Zimbabwe 3-0 in ODIS and 2-1 in T20Is back then.
New Zealand A plays 2 unofficial tests and 5 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 has been hit by a controversy already before the start of the series when Krishnappa Gowtham was omitted from the squad for insulting Duleep Trophy. He preferred to KPL game ahead of Duleep Trophy game. Leg-spinner Karn Sharma has been named as his replacement.
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
– by Atharva Apte