Ravi Shastri among six candidates to be interviewed for India head coach post

Ravi Shastri among six candidates for India coach

Bengaluru, August 12: Ravi Shastri and five others will be interviwed by the Cricket Advisory Commitee (CAC), chaired by Kapil Dev, for the post of the head coach of the Indian cricket team on Friday (August 16).

MyKhel understands that apart from incumbent Shastri, who has gained an automatic entry into the pool, the list include Mike Hesson, Phil Simmons, Tom Moody, Lalchand Rajput and Robin Singh. "Of course, Ravi Shastri at the moment has advantage over other candidates particularly because the ICC T20 World Cup is about an year away and perhaps, it is good for the team to continue the same coach-captain duo i.e Shastri and Virat Kohli," said a senior BCCI official.

The CAC, who will only select the head coach, includes Kapil, Anshuman Gaekwad and Shanta Rangaswamy. Skipper Virat Kohli has also opined that he wanted to see Shastri continue in the role of the head coach.

Hesson has been successful as the coach of New Zealand and his alliance with Brendon McCullum has taken New Zealand to heights. And he was till receently the coach of Kings XI Punjab. Moody has coached Sunrisers Hyderabad for a number of years and has led them to a title as well.

Moody had also stepped down as Sunrisers coach last month. And he also has sufficient international experience, leading Sri Lanka to 50-over World Cup final in 2007.

Simmons, a former West Indian all-rounder, has coached Ireland and Afghanistan and has been successful too with those teams. In his brief stint as West Indies coach, Simmons had led the Caribbeans to the World T20 title in 2016 in India.

Robin Singh, the former Indian all-rounder, was the fielding coach of India in 2007 and was in charge of the team along with Venkatesh Prasad when the team won a series in England that year. Lalchand Rajput was the India manager when India won the inaugural World T20 in 2007 in South Africa under MS Dhoni.

The BCCI has also invited applications for the posts of various support staff and has seen some high profile applicants like Jonty Rhodes (fielding coach) entering the fray. But they will be selected by the national selection committee headed by MSK Prasad.