Sairaj Bahutule to assist Indian spinners during Australia Tests

MUMBAI: India coach Rahul Dravid has called up former leg-spinner Sairaj Bahutule, who is currently the spin bowling coach at the BCCI’s National Cricket Academy, to assist India’s spinners during the four-Test contest. While R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav are the regular members of the squad, the team management has asked quite a few spinners — Washington Sundar, Saurabh Kumar, Sai Kishore, Rahul Chahar, Jayant Yadav and Pulkit Narang — to join the short camp in Nagpur.

“For Dravid, an international series is the perfect stage to give exposure to as many players and coaches as possible. It’s a perfect idea to develop bench strength in all the departments,” a source said.

Bahutule, who played two Tests and eight ODIs for India, featured in 188 first-class games in which he took 630 wickets and scored 6176 runs.

Bahutule was also Team India’s bowling coach on the white-ball tour of New Zealand last November.