Ravi Shastri backs Bharat Arun's appointment as bowling coach with reasoning

Team India will set off for Sri Lanka to play 3 Tests, 5 ODIs and 1 T20I starting July 26, but before that, Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri, the new captain-coach duo, appeared together for a pre-tournament press conference. The selection process of Indian Cricket Team’s coaching staff has been surrounded by a lot of imbroglios, particularly in respect to the treatment meted out to legends Rahul Dravid and Zaheer Khan.

Bharat Arun was appointed as the bowling coach ahead of Zaheer, who possesses more experienced as a player. And this didn’t go down very well with a few people, who slammed the BCCI for already centralising all the decision-making in the hands of Shastri. However, the head coach, as is evident in his reply, is not bothered about opinions and has stuck to the belief that Arun will bring in more to the table than Khan.

Shastri put forward his point saying that although Arun has minimal experience as a player, he has a lot of experience as a coach, which Khan doesn’t. “There’s a track record. 15 years in his life he has been coaching. Look at that track record, it is outstanding. Right from the junior levels to the ‘A’ teams to Indian junior teams in the World Cup. He knows these boys better than I do,” Shastri explained.

Coaching credentials more important than playing record 

“You look at the last WC, India took 77 out of the 80 wickets. If Bharat Arun’s name would have been someone else, who has played a lot of Tests, you would have put him at the top of the tree. So I don’t need to elaborate on what he’s good at, what are his strengths. It is there for everyone to see” he further said.

For Shastri, who was the team director from 2014 until Anil Kumble was appointed as the head coach, the tour to Sri Lanka will be his first assignment. Along with skipper Virat Kohli, the two will look to groom the team to the fullest for the 2019 World Cup.