Munish Bali becomes India's fielding coach for New Zealand tour
Munish Bali has been appointed fielding coach for India's limited overs tour of New Zealand and will be part of the support team led by VVS Laxman.
Cricket PassionEditor
Posted - 2022-11-12T21:45:20+06:00
Updated - 2022-11-12T21:45:20+06:00
Munish Bali has been appointed fielding coach for India's limited overs tour of New Zealand and joins the support team led by VVS Laxman. India plays the first of the three-game T20I series on November 18 in New Zealand.
Munish Bali has been appointed fielding coach for India's limited overs tour of New Zealand and will be part of the support team led by VVS Laxman. With the Rahul Dravid-led support team on hiatus following the T20 World Championship, Laxman will be the head coach on the tour, which begins Nov. 18 in Wellington. India will play three T20s and as many ODIs.
Aside from Bali, former left-handed batter Hrishikesh Kanitkar and ex-Leggie Sairaj Bahutule have been added to the support team as batting and bowling coaches respectively. All three are based in Bengaluru's National Cricket Academy (NCA) with Laxman at the helm of affairs.
Meanwhile, Munish Bali was also reportedly part of the India squad for the away T20Is against Ireland earlier this year and briefly for the England series before going ahead for the home series against those of the ongoing T20 World Cup, according to reports earlier this year. "All three will support Laxman in New Zealand," said a BCCI official.
Hardik Pandya leads India in New Zealand
The Indian team is led by Hardik Pandya as the older players including regular captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul were rested. Rohit and Virat will be back in action during next month's away series against Bangladesh.
This will be the Men in Blue's first international appearance since their semi-final elimination at the 2022 T20 World Championship. They appeared to be at their peak at the right time but had an utterly bad day against an impressive England who decimated the Indian team by 10 wickets with four overs left.
Now it remains to be seen if experiments will begin in the shortest format with immediate effect in anticipation of the next T20 World Championship, due to be held in the US and West Indies in 2024.
Young pacer Umran Malik has been included in the Indian squad for the upcoming series and all eyes will be on his performances in New Zealand conditions. Meanwhile, other senior players including pacer Mohammed Shami, Offie Ravichandran Ashwin and wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik are also not part of this streak.