Sitanshu Kotak Wiki, Age, Wife, Family, Biography & More

Sitanshu Kotak is an Indian cricketer and coach. He played many matches for Saurashtra in domestic cricket and scored more than 8000 runs but he never played any international match for India. He has served as coach of Saurashtra, India A, and India in various tournaments.

Wiki/Biography

Sitanshu Kotak aka Shitanshu Hargovindbhai Kotak was born on Thursday, 19 October 1972 (age 51 years; as of 2023) in Rajkot, Gujarat, India. His zodiac sign is Libra. He started playing cricket at the age of thirteen and trained under the Saurashtra Ranji player, Mahendra Rajdev. He later became a professional cricketer.

Physical Appearance

Height (approx.): 5′ 9″

Weight (approx.): 70 kg

Hair Colour: Salt & pepper

Eye Colour: Black

Family

Parents & Siblings

His father, Hargovindbhai Kotak, was a businessman. He has two sisters named Chetna Gohil and Snehal Palan who is an educationist. ^[1]Facebook – Snehal Palan

Wife & Children

He got married to Payal Kotak on 18 February 1997. He has a son named Hetvik Kotak who is a cricketer and plays for Saurashtra in domestic cricket and a daughter named Bruhi Kotak.

Religion

He follows Hinduism.

Career

Player

Domestic

Sitanshu started playing for Saurashtra Under-17 in the 1989-90 season and played for Saurashtra Under-19 team from 1990-91 to 1991-92 seasons. He represented Gujarat Under-19 in the 1990-91 season and West Zone Under-19 in the 1991-92 season. In the 1992-93 season, he played for West Zone Universities. He played for Saurashtra from 1992-93 to 2013-14 seasons in all major domestic tournaments including Ranji Trophy, Deodhar Trophy, and Vijay Hazare Trophy.

From 1994-95 to 2001-02 seasons, he played for West Zone. In the 1999-2000 Irani Trophy, he scored a hundred for the Rest of India team against Karnataka which had Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath as bowlers. Sitanshu played for Saurashtra Cricket Association XI in the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons.

He later represented Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) from 2008-09 to 2013-14 seasons in various corporate cricket tournaments. He also captained BPCL and Saurashtra in several cricket tournaments. He retired from domestic cricket in October 2013.

International

India A

He played for India A from 1998-99 to 2001-02 seasons.

Leagues

Birmingham Premier League

Sitanshu played for Kenilworth Wardens in many seasons between 1996 and 2015. He also represented the Warwickshire Cricket Board in 2002.

Coach

In October 2014, he was appointed as the coach of the Saurashtra team. Before his appointment, he cleared Level 1 and 2 coaching courses from BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) and ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board).

In 2016, he became an assistant coach of the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Gujarat Lions. He also coached BPCL in many cricket tournaments.

In August 2019, he became the Head Coach of the India A team. He later became the batting coach at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru and helped the Indian cricket Rishabh Pant with his batting.

In August 2023, he was appointed as the head coach of the Indian national team in place of Rahul Dravid during their T20I series against Ireland. In December 2023, he accompanied the Indian national team during the ODI series against South Africa.

Stats

Batting Stats

First Class

• Matches: 130

• Innings: 211

• Runs: 8061

• Average: 41.76

• Highest Score: 168 runs not out

• 50s: 55

• 100s: 15

• Not Out: 18

List A

• Matches: 89

• Innings: 86

• Runs: 3083

• Average: 42.23

• Highest Score: 122 runs not out

• 50s: 26

• 100s: 3

• Not Out: 13

Fielding and Bowling Stats

First Class

• Matches: 130

• Innings: 211

• Catches: 107

• Wickets: 69

• Runs Conceded: 2747

• Balls Bowled: 4937

• Maiden Overs: 137

• Average: 39.81

• Strike Rate: 71.55

• Economy: 3.33

• Best Bowling Figures: 6 wickets for 81 runs

• 5-Wicket Haul: 1

List A

• Matches: 89

• Innings: 86

• Catches: 40

• Wickets: 53

• Runs Conceded: 1385

• Balls Bowled: 1680

• Maiden Overs: 7

• Average: 26.13

• Strike Rate: 31.69

• Economy: 4.94

• Best Bowling Figures: 7 wickets for 43 runs

• 5-Wicket Haul: 1

Tattoos

Sitanshu Kotak has got multiple tattoos inked on both of his arms.

Facts/Trivia

• His batting style is left-handed, and his bowling style is slow left-arm orthodox.
  

  Sitanshu Kotak’s left-handed batting stance

• Sitanshu Kotak used to idolise Mohinder Amarnath and Kapil Dev while growing up. He later used to watch Sachin Tendulkar when he used to play domestic cricket.
  

  Sitanshu Kotak with Sachin Tendulkar (left)

• He listens to Hindi songs during his free time.

• Sitanshu once talked about his aspirations of playing for India and claimed that he scored more than 800 runs in the 1998-99 Ranji Trophy season and a century in both the Deodhar and Duleep Trophy and was hoping for selection for the India team; however, selectors thought that he was 37 years old and did not give him a chance despite being only 27 years old at that time.
  

  A photo of Sitanshu Kotak (left) taken during a Ranji season

• During the 2007-08 Ranji season, Sitanshu scored 168 runs not out against Mumbai in the group stage match. He faced 543 balls and batted for 796 minutes (13 hours 16 minutes) over three days. Then Mumbai captain Amol Muzumdar got so frustrated after the match that he said that he needed a Kotak massage (meaning a longer massage like the timing for which Kotak played).

• During the semifinal match against Mumbai in the 2008-09 Ranji Trophy, he batted for 5 hours 25 minutes and scored 89 runs in 211 deliveries. During the match, Indian legendary batsman Sachin Tendulkar reportedly told Sitanshu that he had heard that Kotak played for long hours and made the opposite team tired. Tendulkar reportedly asked Kotak to play a shot and get out.
  

  Sitanshu Kotak with Sachin Tendulkar (left)

• He had a very good relationship with the BCCI secretary and Saurashtra Cricket Association (SCA) head, Niranjan Shah.

• Sitanshu once said in an interview that when he turned 30, he realised that he would not have any chance to play for India. This changed his mindset, and he became more resilient and wanted to show every bowler that even though he did not play for India, he had the same level of talent required to represent the country.
  

  A photo of Sitanshu Kotak with his family when he was in his 30s

• In an interview in 2013, Sitanshu said that different franchise leagues have uplifted the financial condition of players, and BCCI has also increased the salaries of domestic players. He said that he did not have to worry about money as his father was a businessman; however, it was hard for players to earn money in the 1990s and early 2000s.

• In 2015, he was offered a coaching role at Warwickshire County by the club’s Elite Cricket Development Manager, Paul Greetham; however, he denied that role and continued to coach Saurashtra.
  

  Sitanshu Kotak with Cheteshwar Pujara (left) when he was Saurashtra coach

• Sitanshu claimed in an interview that he got an offer from an IPL franchise in 2008 to become a member of the coaching team; however, he denied the offer as he thought that it was better to play rather than take up any coaching position.
  

  Sitanshu Kotak with Ravindra Jadeja (left) when he used to play and denied an IPL coaching offer in 2008