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The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) has appointed R. Sridhar as Afghanistan's assistant coach. Sridhar will be assisting the Afghanistan team during their upcoming one-off Test match against New Zealand and the three-match ODI series against South Africa.
R Sridhar appointed Afghanistan's assistant coach
Sridhar, who is 54 years old, has a wealth of experience in Indian domestic cricket. He has played 35 First-Class matches and 15 List A matches for India. Additionally, he has served as the Fielding Coach for the Indian national team in over 300 international matches, including two ICC ODI World Cups and two ICC T20 World Cups. Prior to his role with Afghanistan, Sridhar worked as the Spin Bowling Coach for Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League from 2014 to 2017.
Sridhar was replaced by T Dilip as India's fielding coach in 2021 when Rahul Dravid assumed the role of head coach. The 54-year-old also guided the California Knights to a third-place finish in the US Masters T10 League last year.
Sridhar is a Level-3 certified coach with extensive experience in coaching various levels of Indian cricket. He has previously served as both the Assistant Coach and Spin Bowling Coach for the Indian U19 national team. Additionally, from 2008 to 2014, Sridhar contributed to the India National Cricket Academy as an assistant coach for fielding and spin bowling. Afghanistan Cricket Board has also expressed their hope that Sridhar will effectively fulfill this role and potentially secure a long-term contract with the organisation in the future.
Afghanistan is set to play their maiden Test match against New Zealand. This will be their first encounter in the Test format against the Kiwi team. To date, Afghanistan has played a total of nine Test matches, emerging victorious in three and suffering six defeats. Their most recent red-ball outings have resulted in losses against Ireland, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. In a recent 120 World Cup held in the West Indies and USA, Afghanistan managed to defeat New Zealand, which significantly contributed to the Black Caps' early exit from the tournament before the Super Eights. Meanwhile, Afghanistan created history by reaching the semi-finals of an ICC event for the first time, although they suffered a heavy loss to South Africa. The Afghans will aim to avenge this defeat in the upcoming three-match T20I series against the Proteas, which follows the one-off Test against New Zealand.
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