Reports: Ravi Shastri set to remain head coach; Vikram Rathour favourite to become batting coach

The BCCI is set to announce India’s new coaching staff in the coming days. Current head coach Ravi Shastri and his fellow coaches’ contract will be over once the ongoing tour of West Indies comes to an end. Consequently, India will have new head coach, batting coach, bowling coach and fielding coach. The BCCI has already invited applications from interested candidates and will now conduct the interviews.

If reports are to be believed then Shastri is more than likely to retain his position as head coach despite strong competition from six other candidates. Some of the biggest names from the game have applied for the post of India’s head coach. However, Shastri is now the front-runner to retain his post, according to the Times of India.

As far as the batting coach is concerned, former national selector Vikram Rathour has emerged as a favourite among the lot. The other notable candidates who are in the fray for the post are Pravin Amre, Lalchand Rajput, Jonathan Trott and Thilan Samaraweera. Thus current batting coach Sanjay Bangar looks set to part ways with the Indian team.

Ravi Shastri’s record

Under Ravi Shastri, India have done reasonably well. While the Men in Blue failed to win this year’s World Cup, their result under Shastri has been very fine. Earlier this year, Shastri guided the team to its maiden Test series win on Australian soil. In 21 Tests under him, India have won 13 Tests with a victory percentage of 52.38.

It’s even better in T20Is with 25 wins from 36 games with a win percentage of 69.44. The ODI record beats the other two as the Men in Blue have a success rate of 71.67 under Shastri. What makes Shastri’s case stronger is his rapport with skipper Virat Kohli. Kohli has already expressed his desire of seeing Shastri as the coach again.

“Well, the CAC (Cricket Advisory Committee headed by Kapil Dev) has not contacted me on this. But all of us share a great camaraderie with Ravi bhai and would definitely be very happy (to have him around),” Kohli had said prior to his departure for the West Indies.

The report further stated that Bharat Arun could retain his place as bowling coach with Darren Gough, Venkatesh Prasad, Clint Mckay among the few other candidates to have applied for the post. India’s bowling has been doing extremely well in the last year or so which could prompt the BCCI to extend Bharat’s stay.

“If anyone has done an excellent job with a national team’s bowling attack in recent years, it is Bharat Arun. Look at the transformation the Indian team has gone through. India’s pace attack is the best in the world. Young spinners enjoy great confidence. They were the backbone of India’s fight over the last two years,” a source told the paper.

Here is a list of the selected candidates:

Batting coach: Vikram Rathour, Sanjay Bangar, Jonathan Trott, Thilan Samaraweera, Lalchand Rajput, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Amol Mazumdar, Arun Kumar, Mark Ramprakash, Shiv Sundar Das, John Lewis, Mithun Manas, Praveen Amre.

Bowling coach: Venkatesh Prasad, Bharat Arun, Clint McKay, Dodda Ganesh, Darren Gough, Subroto Banerjee, Paras Mhambrey, Sunil Joshi, Amit Bhandari.

Fielding coach: Abhay Sharma, R Sridhar and Jonty Rhodes.

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