Sridharan Sriram to join Australian team as consultant for Bangladesh tour

Sriram was appointed as Australia team consultant after impressing in his stint with the ‘A’ side

Former Indian cricketer Sridharan Sriram is set to be appointed as a consultant of the Australian cricket team for their upcoming tour of Bangladesh, Wisden India reports. The 39-year-old worked as a consultant with the Australian A team when they recently toured India and has been rewarded for his work as the visitors trumped India A 1-0 in the two-match series.

This will be the first time an Indian will be joining Australia’s support staff on an away tour and the former all-rounder is expected to provide valuable inputs to both the batsmen and the bowlers in what is a pretty inexperienced side.

Australia are set to take on Bangladesh in a two-Test series in October in what will be Steven smith’s first series as skipper of the national Test side. With as many as five players – Michael Clarke, Chris Rogers, Ryan Harris, Brad Haddin and Shane Watson – bidding adieu to the longest format of the game after they lost the 2015 Ashes series 3-2 to bitter rivals England, the Australians have named a young side to take on the Asian country in their own backyard.

Bangladesh have been impressive at home in recent times with the relative ‘miinows’ defeating the likes of Pakistan, India and South Africa in ODIs. Though they have yet to replicate that form in Test cricket, Australia are not taking any chances and followed the lead of England who recently appointed Mahela Jayawardene as their batting consultant for their upcoming Test series against Pakistan in the UAE by bolstered their own team management with the addition of Sriram.

Sriram’s international career comprising of 8 ODIs might not seem impressive, but he was a prolific run-getter in domestic cricket scoring close to 10000 runs in first-class cricket at an impressive average of 53. He was an outstanding player of spin during his playing days and has coaching experience as well, being one of the assistant coaches of the Delhi Daredevils franchise in the IPL, before joining up with the Australian A side recently.

Sriram mingled with the likes of skipper Usman Khawaja, Joe Burns and Cameron Bancroft during his involvement with the A squad and with the trio being selected for the trip to Bangladesh, the Australian cricket authorities are of the opinion that Sriram’s familiarity with the squad’s newcomers as well as his long experience of playing in the subcontinent where the majority of the pitches are spin friendly, will come in handy.