Ramesh Powar Joins Australia U-19 as Spin Consultant

Ramesh Powar has slipped back into a familiar role this week: the specialist spin whisperer called in when a team wants its young slow bowlers sharpened in a hurry.

The former India and Mumbai off-spinner is spending four days with the Australian Under-19 side in Rajkot as a short-term spin coach, working closely with their emerging tweakers at the Niranjan Shah Stadium. He linked up with the squad on Saturday and will remain with them through to their final Youth ODI against India on Wednesday.

On Sunday, Powar was a constant presence at the Australian nets, talking lines and fields, body positions and release points, as the juniors worked through their spells in the afternoon heat. It is not a random collaboration. Cricket Australia had sounded him out months ago, asking him to again lend his expertise to their next generation of spinners.

They knew exactly what they were getting. Powar previously worked with Australia’s young slow bowlers in June 2018, when he was invited to coach their Under-23 spinners at CA’s Centre of Excellence in Brisbane. That stint clearly left a mark, enough for CA to return to him when this India tour was being mapped out.

“Cricket Australia had approached me quite a few months back to come and spend some time with their young spinners and guide them,” Powar said from Rajkot.

He pointed out that the prior engagement was locked in well before the current domestic developments around him, so he honoured the commitment and slotted in this four-day window with the tourists.

The timing is significant. Australia’s Under-19s are in the middle of a three-match one-day series against India’s colts. The hosts edged the opening game on Friday by seven runs, setting up a competitive mini-series with the remaining fixtures scheduled for Monday and Wednesday. For the visiting spinners, this is a crash course in bowling on Indian pitches against Indian batters, with an Indian coach in their corner.

Away from the nets in Rajkot, Powar’s own future is in play. He has formally applied for the junior selector’s post with the BCCI, a role that would put him at the heart of India’s youth pipeline. The Board has yet to conduct interviews, but the process has started to move. After the BCCI’s AGM on Friday, secretary Devajit Saikia confirmed that candidates are being shortlisted, with the Cricket Advisory Committee set to interview them and wrap up the appointments within the next 15 days.

Powar’s résumé carries weight in that race. A former India women’s team head coach, he has built a substantial coaching career across formats and levels. He spent the last three seasons as head coach of Gujarat and, before that, guided Mumbai to the Vijay Hazare Trophy title in March 2021, restoring a bit of the old swagger to a heavyweight domestic side.

For now, though, his focus is narrower and more technical: a group of Australian teenagers trying to understand how to make a Kookaburra talk on Indian soil. Four days is not a long time, but in the hands of a specialist, it can be enough to plant ideas that last an entire career.