New Delhi: Punjab Kings bowling coach Sunil Joshi is the topmost name among five candidates who are being considered to succeed Sairaj Bahutule as the spin bowling coach at BCCI’s Centre of Excellence.
Bahutule left the job earlier in the year to take over as Rajasthan Royals’ assistant coach and since then the BCCI has interviewed candidates who are well suited for the position.
Joshi represented India in 15 Tests and 69 ODIs between 1996 and 2002. Apart from assisting Punjab head coach Ricky Ponting in the ongoing IPL 2025, the former left-arm spinner also prior experience of helming Uttar Pradesh in the domestic circuit and working as Bangladesh’s spin bowling consultant.
The 54-year-old Joshi appeared for an online interview in front of a three-member panel comprising BCCI CoE’s Head of Cricket VVS Laxman, chairman of men’s selection committee Ajit Agarkar and General Manager (Cricket Operations) Abbey Kuruvilla.
Apart from Joshi, former off-spinner and India U-19 women’s team coach Nooshin Al Khadeer, former Gujarat and Saurashtra left-arm spinner Rakesh Dhruv and veteran Vidarbha off-spinner Pritam Gandhe were interviewed. All the four other candidates appeared for their interviews in person.
“Obviously, Sunil Joshi has the best CV out of all the other candidates. In case of Nooshin, the BCCI is also going to have an elaborate women’s wing with dedicated staff for international, national and domestic age-group women’s cricketers,” a senior BCCI official told PTI.
“While playing elite level does embellish the CV and Sunil is the only (men’s) Test cricketer among those who appeared for interview, his biggest plus is considerable experience in elite level coaching.
“He has coached multiple first-class teams, has been a part of IPL coaching set-up and also coached senior men’s international team. And don’t forget, he is from Bengaluru, which makes a lot of sense logistically,” he added.
Sunil Joshi represented India in 15 Tests and 69 ODIs between 1996 and 2002 and is currently an assistant coach to Ricky Ponting for Punjab Kings in IPL 2025 Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
