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Kumar Sangakkara to be India’s batting coach after 2nd Test at Colombo

Kumar Sangakkara has been roped in to help India counter Rangana Herath in the last Test.

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Kumar Sangakkara will retire the Test at Colombo © Getty Images (File Photo)
Kumar Sangakkara will retire the Test at Colombo © Getty Images (File Photo)

For once The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) seems to have got it right. In an urgent move to resurrect India’s Test batting woes, BCCI held an emergency meeting, where the new coach was decided. The decision of hiring Kumar Sangakkara as batting coach of the current Indian team was announced. Sangakkara is currently playing his final Test at P Sara Oval, Colombo. He will join the team immediately after the end of the second Test. Indian Test captain Virat Kohli welcomed the move, “We are delighted. Sanga is a great ambassador of the game, and has been a legend with the bat. His insights of the game and the art of batting has influenced many a batsman in the Sri Lankan line-up. It is a positive sign for us and a good intent shown by BCCI,” he said. Read:  Kohli, Rohit approach BCCI to persuade ICC to allow coloured clothing in Tests

Ravi Shastri, Team Director of India, was quoted as saying,”If Sangakkara is the best and we got him first, so be it, the world has to live with it. It doesn’t matter how they come, as long as they keep coming.” Mahela Jayewardene, who had flown down all the way from London, was not happy with the new role of Sangakkara. Sangakkara retorted by saying, “If you can coach England, I can definitely coach India and do a better job.”

Though the fans have been caught in a state of frenzy. The board also listed out things Sangakkara will help the Indian team with. The following are excerpts from the list of to-do for Sangakkara:

  1. Shikhar Dhawan: To get back in the squad as captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad and at times helping Dhawan with tips to bat in swinging conditions.
  2. Wriddhiman Saha: Sangakkara will be training Saha for a month to ensure he turns out to be a voracious appealer. Saha will also be taught to find ways to annoy batsmen from behind the stumps. Saha is known to be a polite man; Sangakkara will be responsible for changing the image of Saha.
  3. Rohit Sharma: There is nothing for Sangakkara to do in this case. Instead, the great man will take tips from Rohit to get some of the latter’s talent to ensure he has a good coaching career and a long stint in the team with limited performances.
  4. Harbhajan Singh: It is always said that the batsman must know where his off-stump is. Sangakkara has been bestowed with a chance of helping Harbhajan to find the off-stump as a bowler.

India have suffered with batsmen not scoring big hundreds, let alone double-hundreds. The question of who will bat at No. 3 was also answered by Sangakkara. He said, “India have Ravindra Jadeja, who has three triple-hundreds; who else to look up to for inspiration to play at No. 3 in the whites?” His response though caught many officials off guard but Sangakkara promised to get the batsmen out of Jadeja for the betterment of Indian cricket. Read: Virat Kohli angers Indian Government by eating crabs in Colombo; faces ban

Please note this is a humour article — a work of pure fiction

(Nikhil Popat is a diehard cricket enthusiast and a PotterHead till the end of time. He can be followed on Twitter @CricCrazyNIKS)

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