Ramesh Powar Guides Australia's Young Spinners

In the dry winter heat of Rajkot, with red dust hanging over the practice wickets at the Niranjan Shah Stadium, an unmistakably familiar figure has slipped into Australian colours – if only for a few days.

Ramesh Powar, the former India and Mumbai off-spinner, is working as a short-term spin coach with Australia’s Under-19 side, quietly shaping the next batch of young tweakers who will soon be fighting for spots in the senior setup.

He joined the Australian junior squad on Saturday and will stay with them through to their final Youth ODI against India on Wednesday. Between those dates, the nets have become his domain.

On Sunday, Powar was a constant presence at Australia’s training session, hovering near the spinners’ run-ups, stopping them mid-stride, tweaking grips, adjusting release points, talking through fields. No grand show, just the familiar grind of a man who has built a second career out of teaching the craft he once practised.

This isn’t a one-off collaboration. Cricket Australia had reached out to him months ago, asking him to spend time with their young spinners and guide them. They knew exactly what they were getting. Back in June 2018, Powar had travelled to Brisbane on CA’s invitation to work with Australia’s Under-23 spinners at the CA Centre of Excellence. That stint clearly left an impression.

So when this prior commitment came up, he honoured it: four days in Rajkot, slotted neatly into a busy calendar and a changing personal landscape.

The timing is intriguing. Australia and India’s Under-19 teams are locked in a three-match one-day series, a small but significant chapter in a rivalry that now stretches across every age group. India edged the opening game on Friday by seven runs. The next two contests are set for Monday and Wednesday, with Powar in the opposite camp, helping Australia’s youngsters decipher conditions he understands better than almost anyone in that dressing room.

Even as he works with Australia, Powar’s own future in Indian cricket sits at an important junction.

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 pathway – picking, shaping and tracking the very players he once shared dressing rooms with in domestic cricket, or coached in more recent years.

The board has not yet conducted interviews. After the BCCI’s AGM on Friday, secretary Devajit Saikia confirmed that the candidates are being shortlisted. Once that’s done, the Cricket Advisory Committee will step in, interview the hopefuls and wrap up the process over the next 15 days. Somewhere on that list is Powar, waiting.

His coaching résumé is already substantial. A former head coach of the India women’s team, he oversaw phases of transition and expectation at the international level. On the domestic circuit, he served as Gujarat’s head coach for the last three seasons, guiding a group that has steadily pushed itself into the conversation in India’s crowded state ecosystem.

Before that, he delivered one of Mumbai’s more satisfying recent triumphs, steering them to the Vijay Hazare Trophy title in March 2021. For a city that measures itself in silverware, that success mattered.

So here he is now: an Indian coach with a strong domestic and international portfolio, fine-tuning Australian spinners on Indian soil while he waits to find out if he’ll soon be entrusted with picking India’s next wave.

For the teenagers in yellow, it’s a rare chance. A man who understands the grind of Indian pitches, the nuances of limited-overs spin, the mental demands of surviving long domestic seasons, is in their ear for four intense days. Every net session, every correction, every small conversation could be a brick in the foundation of a future international career.

For Powar, it’s another reminder of where his expertise is valued – across borders, across formats, across age groups. The next fortnight will tell whether that expertise is also handed a formal role in shaping India’s junior structure.

For now, the only thing that matters is the next ball in Rajkot, the next young spinner at the top of his mark, and a coach who still believes that a well-bowled off-break can change more than just a match.