Zimbabwe Cricket has appointed Lalchand Rajput as head coach of the national side.
Eager to get the national squad playing a more competitive brand of cricket, Zimbabwe has put their faith in former Indian Test batsman Rajput for this key role. Rajput had been serving as Zimbabwe’s head coach in an interim capacity since May and had impressed the board sufficiently to be appointed as coach in a permanent capacity.
Rajput was the manager of India when they won the T20 World Championship in South Africa and his coaching credentials include spells with the Mumbai Indians as well as the Afghanistan national side.
Former Zimbabwe star all-rounder Heath Streak was axed as coach after Zimbabwe failed to qualify for the 2019 World Cup.
Rajput had a two-week Test career when he was brought in to open the batting to allow Sunil Gavaskar to move down the order. After scoring 32 and 61 in his first Test, he followed it up with two failures in the loss at Colombo, before being replaced at the top of the order by all-rounder Ravi Shastri, who is the current head coach of India.
He also played four ODIs for India, but could muster only nine runs, with a highest score of eight.
@ZimCricketv head coach @lalchandrajput1 talks about his team's training camp, saying he's happy with preparations for the limited-overs and Test series away to @OfficialCSA and @BCBtigers scheduled for September-November #SAvZIM #BANvZIM pic.twitter.com/4RGlgrVRUR
— Zimbabwe Cricket (@ZimCricketv) August 21, 2018
Photo: Jekesai Njikizana/AFP/Getty Images
