5 things to know about Sitanshu Kotak, who could be appointed as India's batting coach

Sitanshu Kotak will reportedly become the Indian men's cricket team's batting coach in the near future. After the team's disappointing show with the bat in the recent World Test Championship series against New Zealand and Australia, the management has decided to appoint a specialist batting coach.

Vikram Rathour was the team's batting coach when Rahul Dravid was the head coach. However, the current chief coach Gautam Gambhir has preferred to have Sitanshu Kotak in his group. Kotak never played international cricket for India but was a domestic cricket legend for Saurashtra.

Before the news of Kotak joining the Indian team's coaching staff becomes official, here's a quick glance at five things to know about him.

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#1 Sitanshu Kotak was born in Rajkot, Gujarat

Kotak was born on October 19, 1972 in Rajkot, Gujarat. He represented Saurashtra in domestic cricket and scored over 10,000 runs across various formats of the game.

When the Saurashtra Cricket Association renamed the stadium in Rajkot to Niranjan Shah Stadium, Kotak was felicitated by Rahul Dravid at a grand event.

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#2 Sitanshu Kotak's batting stats

Kotak never donned the Indian jersey in his career. He represented Saurashtra and Warwickshire in domestic matches. In his first-class career, Kotak aggregated 8,061 runs in 130 games at an average of 41.76. His highest score in the first-class format was 168.

Talking about his record in List-A cricket, Kotak scored 3,083 runs in 86 innings, averaging 42.23. He scored 15 centuries in first-class cricket and three centuries in the limited overs format.

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#3 Sitanshu Kotak has worked as India's head coach

While Kotak will reportedly be the specialist batting coach for the Indian team in the near future, he has been associated with the side as a head coach in the past. Back in 2023, when India visited Ireland for an away T20I series, Kotak was the head coach.

Neither Rahul Dravid nor VVS Laxman were available for the Ireland. Hence, BCCI named Kotak as a temporary head coach. India won that T20I series by 2-0.

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#4 Sitanshu Kotak's son is also a cricketer

Cricket runs in the blood of the Kotak family. Sitanshu made Saurashtra proud with his excellent batting performances, and his son Hetvik Kotak is following in his footsteps now.

Hetvik has played for the Halar Heroes team in the Saurashtra Premier League. Like his father Sitanshu, Hetvik is a batter. He made his T20 debut for Saurashtra in a Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy match against Goa in 2023.

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#5 Sitanshu Kotak's IPL connection

Sitanshu never played an IPL match in his career. He worked as an assistant coach for Gujarat Lions during the franchise's brief stay in the league. Ahead of the 2017 season, the Gujarat-based franchise roped in Kotak as their assistant coach.

During that season, Kotak worked with the likes of Suresh Raina, Brendon McCullum, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Smith, James Faulkner and Ishan Kishan. It will be interesting to see how he performs if he is named the next specialist batting coach of India.