Abhay Sharma set to apply for India fielding coach job

New Delhi, Oct 20: Abhay Sharma, who has worked with India A, India U-19 and more recently the national women's side, has emerged as one of the candidates for the senior men's team fielding coach's position in place of the outgoing R Sridhar.

The 52-year-old is set to apply for the fielding coach role with the Indian cricket team with Sridhar leaving at the end of the T20 World Cup along with the majority of the support staff including head coach Ravi Shastri.

"He will be applying for the role soon," a BCCI source confirmed. The application deadline ends on November 3.

Sharma, who has played 89 first-class games representing Delhi, Railways and Rajasthan, was the fielding coach of the Indian team which travelled to Zimbabwe in 2016. He also travelled with the Indian team on the tour of USA and West Indies in the same year.

More recently, he was praised for his work by the Indian women cricketers including skipper Harmanpreet Kaur during the UK tour before he was replaced for the subsequent tour of Australia. Sharma has travelled to three U-19 World Cups, most recently in South Africa in 2020.

He has also been part of around 10 India A tours. He is one of the coaches at the National Cricket Academy and has worked extensively with its chief Rahul Dravid, who is among the front-runners for the India head coach job.