New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) Former India left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi is likely to take over as the spin bowling coach at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE), following his departure from IPL side Punjab Kings.

Joshi, who also served as a member of the senior men’s selection committee and was briefly the panel chairman, represented India in 15 Tests and 69 ODIs between 1996 and 2002. He was a part of the Punjab Kings coaching staff as a spin bowling coach before IPL 2023 began.

“There were people like Nooshin Al Khadeer, Rakesh Dhruv, Pritam Gandhe and Saurasish Lahiri in contention, but Joshi’s elite expertise as a coach in domestic, international and IPL teams, apart from being a Test player, made him a standout pick for the role.”

“Once his offer at the CoE was confirmed, Joshi stepped down from his role at Punjab Kings, which came to the light on Monday afternoon. He will now link up with the CoE,” said sources aware of the development to IANS on Monday.

Most recently, Joshi was involved with the India ‘A’ side as the bowling coach during their recently concluded red-ball and white-ball games against Australia ‘A’ in Lucknow and Kanpur. At CoE, Joshi will replace Sairaj Bahutule, who had left the role to join Rajasthan Royals as their spin-bowling coach ahead of IPL 2025.

Joshi also coached Uttar Pradesh during the domestic season and has previously served as spin consultant for Bangladesh men’s team. His appointment at the CoE would see him play a key role in mentoring India’s spin talent across levels.

Based in Bengaluru, Joshi is expected to work closely with national team spinners such as Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Varun Chakaravarthy and Ravi Bishnoi, while also guiding India A, U-19 and top domestic spin-bowling performers.

His responsibilities at CoE will see him being tasked with player development across levels, in line with the mandate for all coaches there. He will also coordinate with national selectors for participating in talent identification plans aimed at strengthening India’s spin bowling pipeline.

–IANS

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