Amol Muzumdar has been named the head coach of the senior women’s Indian cricket team, the BCCI confirmed on Wednesday.

The Indian team has been without a head coach since December 2022 after Ramesh Powar was removed as a part of the “restructuring module” by the BCCI. Powar returned to his role as a spin bowling coach in the National Cricket Academy, leaving the spot of the head coach of the women’s team vacant.

The Harmanpreet Kaur-led side were overseen by Hrishikesh Kanitkar in the interim, who was the official batting coach of the side. Since Powar’s removal, India played a five-match T20 series against Australia, a tri-series in South Africa that also involved West Indies and the 2023 T20 World Cup where they narrowly missed out on the final. India also toured Bangladesh for a multi-format series without a head coach before clinching gold in the Asian Games.

Muzumdar, a domestic titan, has previously coached the under-19 and under-23 teams at the NCA and was the head coach of the Mumbai Ranji squad till the 2022-23 season. He was also the batting coach of Rajasthan Royals for four seasons.

He also has brief international coaching experience, having been appointed as the batting consultant of the Netherlands men’s team in 2013. He was also the batting coach for the South Africa men’s team when they toured India in 2019.

Reportedly, Muzumdar had been given a coaching contract by Baroda for the 2023 domestic season, which he did not accept as he awaited a decision over the India women’s head coach role.

Muzumdar reportedly edged ahead of Tushar Arothe, who coached the women’s team twice previously, including between 2017 and 2018, and former Durham coach Jon Lewis (not the England head coach of the same name).

The term of Muzumdar’s coaching role has not been specified but he is expected to oversee the 2024 T20 World Cup in Bangladesh and the 2025 50-over World Cup at home.

The former Mumbai player amassed 11,167 runs in 171 first-class games in a career that lasted nearly two decades. Muzumdar averaged 48.13, scoring 30 hundreds and 60 fifties but never played for India.