India’s assistant coach Abhishek Nayar finds himself in a tough spot as the BCCI has added Sitanshu Kotak to the support staff as a batting coach, TOI reported on Friday (January 17).

Notably, the Indian board didn’t have a "batting coach" under head coach Gautam Gambhir but Nayar is understood to have been performing the role during the team's recent assignments.

According to the report, the role of the support staff was discussed during the BCCI review meeting and it is learnt that coach Gambhir had sought a specialist batting coach.

During the tour of Australia, Nayar predominantly worked with the players not featuring in the playing XI and had extended batting sessions with the lower-order and bowlers.

After India conceded the BGT 1-3 to Australia, the legendary Sunil Gavaskar questioned the role of support staff. In particular, he was critical of the batters’ performance.

“Aapke coaching staff kya kar rahe the? (What was your coaching staff doing in Australia?) Your bowling coach and your batting coach… your batting coach, in particular, against New Zealand when we were bowled for 46, and the way we were defeated in the remaining matches. Batting main koi dum nahi tha (There was no punch in the batting). Here also our batting was not strong enough, so questions should be asked what have you guys done? Why can’t we see any improvement?” questioned Gavaskar in a chat with the broadcaster.

As per the report, the top BCCI officials also felt the need for a batting specialist and Kotak's inclusion is seen as an attempt to address those issues.

Kotak has been part of the India A and National Cricket Academy (NCA) set-ups over the last few years and has worked with a lot of young players during the A tours.

India's coaching staff will reportedly be reviewed after the Champions Trophy and it will not be a surprise if some members of the support staff are sacked.

In addition to head coach Gautam Gambhir, India's coaching team currently features bowling coach Morne Morkel, assistant coaches Abhishek Nayar and Ryan ten Doeschate, and fielding coach T Dilip.

(With TOI Inputs)