New Delhi: Ravi Shastri has become the frontrunner for the position of India’s head coach job after he formally submitted Monday, his application to the BCCI. A senior BCCI official confirmed this news. “Yes, Ravi has applied and so has West Indian Phil Simmons,” the official said.
The interviews for all the applicants will be conducted July 10 by the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) comprising Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar. The others who have thrown their hat into the ring are Virender Sehwag, Tom Moody, Venkatesh Prasad, Richard Pybus, Dodda Ganesh and Lalchand Rajput.
However, one can safely assume that Shastri is in a very strong position to get selected for the post. He has the backing of Indian skipper Virat Kohli. Also Shastri’s close proximity to Tendulkar in the Indian cricket circle is a well known fact. Tendulkar has always been a great fan of Shastri’s cricketing brains and man-management skills.
During Shastri’s earlier tenure, India won the limited overs series away against England in 2014, reached the semifinals of the World Cup and World T20 (2015 and 2016 respectively), won away Test series against Sri Lanka, home series against South Africa and T20 away series against Australia.