A year after retirement, Shitanshu Kotak back in Saurashtra dressing room — as coach

On the sidelines of his playing career, Kotak had already cleared Level 1 and 2 of BCCI’s coaching and interestingly, while playing county cricket in England, the batsman, famous for playing long innings, had also qualified the Level 2 course from the English & Wales Cricket Board.

“I always wanted to take up coaching after ending my playing career. Cricket is the only thing I know. In the past five years I did both my Level 1 and 2 not only from the BCCI but from the ECB too. I used to coach children in England for Kenilworth Warden during week days. I used to conduct seminars in England on coaching. The best thing about coaching Saurashtra is that I know each one of them. There will be a continuity factor,” he explained.

Kotak represented Saurashtra in 130 first-class games in which he accumulated 8,061 runs at an average of 41.76 with 15 hundreds. During his playing days, the opposition team would always look for his wicket. “Coaching is not easy,” he elaborated. “Once you bat, you bat for yourself, but in coaching you work like a mechanic. You have to make sure the car runs smoothly. If there is a problem then it needs to be corrected immediately.”

However, Kotak admitted that sometimes it is hard to convince players. Young players might just nod but may not apply what coaches tell them. “Sometimes you try to advice a player in good or bad days. You need to point out their errors, but the sad part is ache time mein sunte hain nahi aur bure time mein bhi nahi sunte. It will be big challenge to win the trust of the players,” he added.

The first goal for Kotak is to make a strong Saurashtra team which is just not remembered for a few individuals. At the same time, he wants to improve the team’s record in one-dayers. Despite not winning the Ranji Trophy in the last decade, Saurashtra has managed to give Test players: Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja and Jaydev Unadkat. So there is no dearth of talent, Kotak opined.

“We have good players but they need to be more committed. They need to be more accountable. Players need to think out of the box and at the same time they need to take responsibility. We had players who would relax after one or two performances. This need to be change if we want to win the title. The whole approach and mindset need to change. More hardwork is required,” he pointed out.

Trivedi returns after ban

Rajkot: Uttar Pradesh medium-pacer Sudeep Tyagi has, meanwhile, been included in Saurashtra’s Ranji Trophy one-day team for the West Zone league starting in Ahmedabad on November 5. Also in the squad is seamer Siddharth Trivedi, who was banned for year in connection with the IPL 2013 match-fixing scandal.

“Jaydev Shah has been named captain of the 15-member squad (that) includes all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and Cheteshwar Pujara,” Saurashtra Cricket Association (SCA) media manager Himanshu Shah said on Monday. Tyagi, 27, has decided to play for Saurashtra and has completed all the necessary formalities, Shah said. (PTI)