Behind every successful team, there lies a coaching staff. However, we don't know all of them. They don't get classic pre-match photoshoots. But they do their work calmly and silently. Well, in early days, a cricket team normally used to have a team manager like that in a football team. However, with evolution, several coaches have been added, and there are classifications of those. Today, we will discuss the type of coaches a modern-day cricket team has and what their roles are: 1 | The Head Coach: The Head Coach is the overall leader of the team’s coaching staff and is responsible for setting the team’s philosophy, overall strategy, squad selection (with selectors), match planning, training programs, and overseeing coordination among all specialist coaches. They guide long-term team development, manage senior leadership (captain, vice-captain), and decide how to balance formats (Test, ODI, T20). Historically, head coaches also shaped the identity of teams and often had to manage senior players’ egos, overseas tours, and home conditions — making this arguably the most influential role in modern cricket. Famous past head coaches of India include John Wright (2000–2005), under whom India reached the 2003 World Cup final. Another iconic name is Gary Kirsten (2008–2011), under whose stewardship India won the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup. Later Rahul Dravid took India to the 2023 ODI World Cup final and even won the 2024 T20 Men's World Cup. As of 2025, the Head Coach of the Indian men's team is Gautam Gambhir. With the women's team, it was Amol Majumdar who won the 2025 Women's World Cup. 2 | Assistant Coach: In modern cricket, the Assistant Coach is the Head Coach’s primary support system and plays a crucial role in day-to-day team management. Their responsibilities include supervising training sessions, conducting skill-based drills, monitoring player form, analysing performances, and helping players with technical corrections. They also assist in planning practice schedules, coordinating with specialist coaches, and preparing players for match situations. Assistant Coaches often run smaller group sessions — such as focused batting, bowling, or fielding work — and act as additional observers during nets and games. They also handle certain administrative aspects like organizing drills and ensuring smooth session flow. Well-known examples include Abhishek Nayar, who previously served as India’s Assistant Coach, and Ryan ten Doeschate, who currently holds the role in the Indian men’s team. Read also: Top 10 forgotten stars of IPL 3 | Batting Coach The Batting Coach specialises in working with batters: refining their technique (stance, footwork, shot selection), preparing them for different formats (Test, ODI, T20), and helping them adapt to diverse playing conditions. Beyond technique, batting coaches guide temperament — coping with pressure, building innings, pacing in Tests vs. explosiveness in T20s, and working on mental resilience during slumps or form crises. Earlier, Vikram Rathour was the batting coach, who enjoyed a great time with the team, accompanying them in most of the crucial wins. Currently, it is Sitangshu Kotak looking after the batting side. 4. Bowling Coach: The bowling coach works with the bowling department, administering the bowlers and their techniques. He/she normally takes care of both the pace and spin bowling, focusing on bowling technique — seam, swing, pace, spin grips, variation (slower balls, yorkers, cutters, spin drift, flight), line and length, consistency, and managing workloads to avoid injuries. For fast bowlers especially, emphasis on fitness, conditioning, and recovery is often part of the job — making bowling coach a hybrid technical and physical discipline role. Notably, Bharat Arun served India as one of the prominent bowling coaches under whom India had the best pace attack consisting of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Sirja, Umesh Yadav nad Bhubneshwar Kumar. Currently, the South african speedstar leads the group in India. However, in league cricket, many franchises prefer to have a spin bowling coach and a fast bowling coach separately. 6. Fielding Coach For a fielding coach, his/her main responsibility is to first figure out which player performs well at what position of the field. He trains players accordingly. Players who have better reflexes often get the slip or the gully and the point role, that is- closer to the batsman. They have specialized training sessions—sometimes, the coach kneels down with a bat to give an odd bounce to the ball so that the fielder can catch it. Each position fielder has different techniques and the fielding coach ensures that the players can perform. He even look after the wicketkeeping skills- R.Sridhar being one of the crucial fielding coach who imporved Rishabh Pant's fielding bugs. India's T Dilip rose to popularity during the 2025 ODI World Cup. after he introduced the fielding medal for the best fielder of the team- a spectacle worth watching after the matches. 7. Fitness / Strength & Conditioning: Fitness / Strength & Conditioning coaches help bowlers and batsmen maintain fitness, manage workload, and prevent injuries. Physiotherapists assist with recovery and rehab. Spin consultants or specialist bowling consultants may also be part of support staff — for example, when dealing with spinners’ variations, flight, wrist spin, etc. According to recent reports, India’s 2025 support‑staff includes roles such as mental conditioning coach, strength coach and physiotherapist along with the core coaches 8. Mental Conditioning In Modern day cricket mental health plays a very important role. During the dim phase of England's former caotain Alaister Cook, another former England captain turned psychologist, Mike Brearly, helped Cook to recover from the phase. His comeback Ashes holds the importance of a mental conditioning coach in a team. For example, Paddy Upton — a renowned mental‑conditioning coach and sports psychologist — has previously worked with India. He worked with the 2011 World Cup winning team, and is currently associated with the Indian Men's hockey team. He focuses on mindset, pressure-handling, confidence-building, mental resilience, and helping players reset after failures — invaluable in high-stakes tournaments. 9. Throwdown Speciallists Throwdown specialists are part of a team’s support staff who bowl to the batters in the nets using a “sidearm” — a long-spoon-like device that hurls the ball at high speed (often 140–150 km/h or more), simulating fast bowling and other challenging deliveries. Their role is to test batters under realistic pace/spin conditions, help sharpen footwork, reflexes and shot-selection, and build confidence against high-speed bowling. Because of them, batters get “match-like” practice without using frontline bowlers for every nets session. For India, the throwdown specialists currently include: D Raghavendra (often called “Raghu”), Nuwan Seneviratne and Dayanand Garani. Their consistent work behind the scenes is widely credited by players for improving batting against pace and varied bowling attacks.