New Zealand Cricket Names Thilan Samaraweera In Coaching Team For Bangladesh And Pakistan tours

New Zealand Cricket has named former Sri Lanka cricketer Thilan Samaraweera as a member of the team’s coaching staff for the upcoming limited-overs tours of Bangladesh and Pakistan.

For the next month, the New Zealand cricket team is slated to play five T20 Internationals in Bangladesh and thereafter they move to Pakistan to play three ODIs and five T20Is with the tour finishing on October 3.

New Zealand Cricket’s reason to include Thilan Samaraweera

Samaraweera’s inclusion in New Zealand’s coaching unit to the two Asian countries was made in order to manage the workload of players and the staff of the New Zealand cricket team.

The national cricket board of New Zealand, while keeping in mind the busy calendar year ahead, has decided to name separate squads including the coaching staff team for their next four tours which also include the ICC T20 World Cup followed by the India tour.

Thilan Samaraweera’s international cricket days and coaching career

Thilan Samaraweera represented Sri Lanka in 134 international matches, 81 Tests, and 53 ODIs, in his cricket career that spanned over 14 years. He scored 14 Test hundreds and a couple of centuries in ODI cricket and he was also the part of Sri Lankan team that played against India in the 2011 World Cup final at Wankhede, it also happens to be his last appearance in ODI cricket.

The Colombo-born played his last international match against Australia in the third Test in Sydney in January 2013. Since then he shifted his career to coaching, starting with the role of batting consultant for Bangladesh’s national team in September 2016 and also served as a consultant coach for Australia during their Test tour of Sri Lanka in 2016.

In November 2017, Samaraweera was appointed as Sri Lanka Cricket’s batting coach and remained in the role for one year. He was named as fielding coach for IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in 2018. He has previously worked with the New Zealand team while they toured Sri Lanka in 2019 to play the two-match Test series which ended in a 1-1 draw.

Also Read: New Zealand Lock Their T20 World Cup Squad; Announce Their Teams For The Limited-Overs Fixtures Against Bangladesh, Pakistan, And India As Well