Having served as India's fielding coach in the past, R Sridhar has been appointed as assistant coach of the Afghanistan senior men's team. Sridhar will be part of the setup for the upcoming one-off Test match vs New Zealand and also a three-match ODI series against South Africa. His contract will be made long-term, depending on his performance.

In a statement, the Afghanistan Cricket Board said, "It is worth mentioning that the Afghanistan Cricket Board has appointed Sridhar as the assistant coach for the one-off Test against New Zealand and the 3-match ODI series against South Africa. The Afghanistan Cricket Board wish Sridhar fills the role effectively and hope to have long term contract with him in the future."

R Sridhar's profile

The 54-year-old is a level-3 certified coach, who is also a former India U-19 national team assistant coach, and spin bowling coach too. From 2008-14, Sridhar was also an assistant fielding and spin bowling coach in India's National Cricket Academy.

A former player, Sridhar represented Hyderabad in domestic cricket from 1989/90-2000/01, before taking up a coaching role in cricket in 2001. He played 35 first-class matches and 15 List A matches for Hyderabad, registering 574 and 69 runs respectively. He also took 91 first-class wickets and 14 List A dismissals.

He was the assistant coach of the India U-19 team at the 2014 U-19 World Cup in UAE. He was named as fielding coach of the senior Indian team in August 2014, and saw his contract extended. In 2021 when Rahul Dravid took over as head coach, Sridhar was replaced by T Dilip. He has also served as fielding coach for Kings XI Punjab, and head coach for the Andhra cricket team and Tripura Cricket Association. Last year, he also coached California Knights to a third-position finish in the US Masters T10 competition.

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