Patiala’s Munish Bali appointed fielding coach for NZ tour
CHANDIGARH: Punjab’s former cricket coach Munish Bali has been named fielding coach of the India cricket team which will compete in the upcoming limited overs tour of New Zealand. He will be joining the support staff led by VVS Laxman, who will be pitching-in for Rahul Dravid, as the latter has been rested for the tour after the recently held T20 World Cup. From Patiala, Bali has led Punjab U-15, U-16, U-17 and U-19 teams to many title victories in the last decade. Besides this, he has also worked with India U-19 team and women’s team. Bali has worked extensively at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru in the last one year as faculty.
A level-III coach and an employee of State Bank of India, Bali had been the assistant coach with the 2008 World Cup winning India U-19 team and then went on to be the assistant coach of the Indian women’s cricket team in 2011 and 2012.
Bali, Hrishikesh Kanitkar (batting coach) and Sairaj Bahutule (bowling coach) will be part of the support staff in New Zealand. All three coaches are based at the National Cricket Academy, which is headed by Laxman.
Bali was also part of the India squad in Ireland and briefly in England earlier this year before playing the home series against South Africa. He was Punjab senior men’s team coach for two seasons before Surendra Bhave took over. In 2018, he was appointed as fielding coach of Andhra’s senior men’s team.