The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) has appointed former Team India fielding coach R Sridhar as their assistant coach for the forthcoming series against New Zealand and South Africa. New Zealand will be at Greater Noida for a one-off Test match against Afghanistan which is set to commence on September 9.
After the red-ball game, the Afghans will host South Africa in a three-match T20I series from September 18 to 22 at Sharjah. Sridhar was India’s fielding coach from 2014-2021 including two ODI and T20 World Cups. He served as part of Punjab Kings (PBKS) coaching staff between 2014-2017 including their lone final appearance in 2014.
Sridhar holds Level-3 certification in coaching and has coached Hyderabad Under-19 and Under-16 teams. He was a member of National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru in 2011 before being made the fielding coach for India Under-19 team in the same year.
As an Indian domestic cricket player during the 1990s, Sridhar also played 35 first-class matches and 15 List-A games. In domestic cricket, he claimed 105 wickets with two 5-wicket hauls under his left-arm spin bowling. The Karnataka-born cricketer was also a decent batter, as his first-class and List-A averages of 16.40 and 17.25 show.
In 2021, when Rahul Dravid assumed the role of head coach, T Dilip became the new fielding coach replacing Sridhar. At the age of 54, he coached the California Knights to a third place finish in last year’s US Masters T10 League.
Afghanistan will face New Zealand in their inaugural Test match
Afghanistan’s exclusive Test against New Zealand will be its first match in this format against the Kiwis. So far, the Afghans have played nine matches in their test career, winning three and losing six. They lost their last three outings in red-ball cricket to Ireland, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Recently at the T20 World Cup held in West Indies and USA, Afghanistan beat New Zealand. This was one of the main reasons why the Black Caps were eliminated from that tournament before they reached Super Eights stage.
Additionally, Afghanistan became historic by reaching an ICC event semi-final for the first time ever but was then crushed by South Africa. In order to take revenge on that loss when both teams meet again this time next week, they will have a three-match T20I series after playing New Zealand in a one-off test.
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