File photo of Sanjay Bangar.
Royal Challengers Bangalore on Wednesday has roped in former Indian batsman and batting coach Sanjay Bangar as the franchise batting consultant ahead of the Indian Premier League 2021 auction.
“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.
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.
