Amay Khurasiya set to take over as Kerala coach

KOCHI: Former Indian batsman Amay Khurasiya is all set to take over as the coach of the Kerala cricket team. He will replace M Venkataramana, who left the job a couple of months back after overseeing the team for one season.
The Kerala team failed to enter the knockouts of the Ranji Trophy last season under Venkataramana. An aggressive strokemaker, the flamboyant southpaw represented India in 12 ODIs, with a knock of 57 against Sri Lanka on debut being his highest.He was also part of India's 1999 World Cup squad but didn't get a game.
The Madhya Pradesh batsman was a prolific scorer in domestic cricket, scoring 7,304 runs from 119 first-class matches while he accumulated 3,768 from 112 List A games.
The 52-year-old is a qualified level 'C' coach from the National Cricket Academy (NCA) and has been coaching in the domestic circuit since 2004. He has been credited with the rise of pacer Avesh Khan, batter Rajat Patidar, and all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer.
Though the final modalities of the contract with KCA are being worked out, Khurasiya is expected to take charge of the team soon. However, he will have his task cut out as Kerala's Ranji Trophy campaign begins against Punjab on October 11 at St Xavier's College ground, Thumba.
With less than 20 days for the tournament to start, Khurasiya will have the challenge of getting a group of players, who have been playing a lot of T20 games in the inaugural Kerala Cricket League which concluded on Wednesday, ready for the rigours of the red-ball challenge.