Mumbai: Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has shortlisted six candidates including incumbent Ravi Shastri for the high-profile post of the Indian cricket team''s head coach. The six candidates are Mike Hesson, Tom Moody, Phil Simmons, Lalchand Rajput, Robin Singh and the current head coach Ravi Shastri, who was automatically included in the running. After shortlisting the candidates, BCCI on Monday informed all the six shortlisted candidates about the interview date and time.
The Kapil Dev-led Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), comprising of Anshuman Gaekwad, former women''s team captain Shantha Rangaswamy, will now interview the shortlisted candidates at the BCCI headquarters on Friday for India''s head coach''s job. With the team touring the West Indies, Shastri will be interviewed via Skype. Notably, the board had reportedly received around 2,000 applications for various coaching positions like batting, fielding and bowling coaches, only a few big names had applied for the position of head coach. Meanwhile, the support staff of the team (batting, bowling and fielding coaches) will be picked by chief selector MSK Prasad.
At present, current head coach Ravi Shastri whose contract expires after India''s tour to the West Indies, seems to be the front-runner in the fray. Amongst the other candidates, Moody, a former Australian all-rounder, has been a coach with the Sunrisers Hyderabad for the past six years. They won the title under him in 2016, and were the runners-up in 2018. Ex-India team manager Lalchand Rajput has coached India, India A, Afghanistan and is with Zimbabwe currently. He also coached the Indian team to the inaugural WorldT20 title in 2007, and then the CB Tri-Series triumph in Australia the next year.
While the former India fielding coach Robin Singh, has been an assistant coach with the Mumbai Indians for a long time, apart from guiding Barbados Tridents in the Caribbean Premier League. Mike Hesson, a former New Zealand coach (2012 to 2018), was in charge of Kings XI Punjab this season, before he quit the job while Former West Indies opener Phil Simmons was the coach of Afghanistan in the 2019 World Cup in England.
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