Amit Uniyal named head coach as Punjab overhaul backroom staff

Uniyal, a left-arm seam-bowling allrounder for Punjab back in the day, played 29 first-class games, taking 91 wickets at an average of 29.94. He also featured in 46 List A matches and played two of his four T20s for Rajasthan Royals during IPL 2009. Since 2017, he has been part of various coaching set-ups and selection committees for Chandigarh. He was their assistant coach in 2020-21 and the chairman of selectors last season.

Uniyal’s appointment makes him Punjab’s fourth head coach in as many seasons. After Aavishkar Salvi’s departure in 2023-24, both Wasim Jaffer and Sandeep Sharma lasted only one season each.

While the team has been doing well in white-ball cricket, especially T20s – winning the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in 2023-24 – their red-ball performance has been below par. Across the last three Ranji Trophy seasons, they managed just three wins and ten losses from 21 games.

“Since everyone wants to play in the IPL nowadays, they focus more on T20 cricket,” Uniyal told Cricinfo. “And it’s the same everywhere, be it Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh or Mumbai. But we have the potential, we have the talent, all we need is to play as a unit.

“We want to do better in red-ball cricket this time, and for that, you need bowlers who can take 20 wickets. So we will work towards that.”

Team selection has also lacked consistency. Punjab began the last Ranji Trophy season with Naman Dhir as captain, only for Uday Saharan to take over after two games. Even Shubman Gill led the side for one match. In total, the team used 27 players – the most by any side in the Elite groups – something the new selection committee headed by Gaurav Gupta will look to address.

“I don’t know what happened last season,” Uniyal said. “But obviously when the team is not winning, the changes are more. I just want us to play tough cricket without any fear of losing one’s spot. If someone gets picked, he will get a proper opportunity.”

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