IPL 2021: Virat Kohli’s RCB picks Sanjay Bangar as batting consultant for IPL 2021

IPL 2021 – RCB picks Sanjay Bangar as batting consultant: IPL Auctions are now just a week away and Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) has decided to sign Sanjay Bangar as batting consultant with the franchise.

The franchise announced the news on their official Twitter page with the caption, “We are delighted to welcome Sanjay Bangar to the RCB Family as a batting consultant for #IPL2021! Star-struck. Welcome aboard, Coach!” RCB tweeted on Wednesday.

We are delighted to welcome Sanjay Bangar to the RCB Family as a batting consultant for #IPL2021! 🤩

Welcome aboard, Coach! 🤜🏻🤛🏻#PlayBold #WeAreChallengers #NowARoyalChallenger pic.twitter.com/SWKLthSyXl

— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) February 10, 2021

IPL 2021: RCB’s new batting coach Sanjay Bangar has prior experience with Indian team

The 48-year-old retired all-rounder was Team India’s batting coach for a period of five years since 2014. He worked as an assistant under then Indian coach Duncan Fletcher, followed by Anil Kumble and Ravi Shastri before getting sacked after India’s 2019 World Cup exit. He was later replaced by current batting coach Vikram Rathour.

With him joining RCB, the former opener will work under the captaincy of Virat Kohli for the second time in his career while Mike Hesson continues to be the head coach of the franchise.

Prior to his 2014 stint, he also served as the assistant coach of Kings XI Punjab before overtaking as team’s head coach a season later. However, he had to step down from the role to avoid conflict of interest as he was also part of the Team India support staff.

Bangar, who played for Railways in first-class cricket, played 12 Test matches and 15 ODIs for India. He amassed 8349 runs in first-class cricket while scoring 13 centuries and 43 fifties while claiming 300 wickets

IPL 2021 Auction: Royal Challengers Bangalore Retained and released players

Retained Players: Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Devdutt Padikkal, Md. Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Joshua Phillipe, Pavan Deshpande, Shahbaz Ahmed, Adam Zampa, Kane Richardson

Released Players: Chris Morris, Shivam Dube, Aaron Finch, Umesh Yadav, Dale Steyn, Moeen Ali, Parthiv Patel, Pawan Negi, Isuru Udana, Gurkeerat Mann