Lalchand Rajput, who was ignored for the post of head coach of the Indian team, has now joined the race to become the batting coach. The selection committee led by MSK Prasad will elect the support staff of the team. The 57-year-old Rajput’s submission to be the batting coach has made the race interesting. Former Test batsman Vikram Rathore was already considered a strong contender to replace Sanjay Bangar.
Ravi Shastri, once again was elected as the head coach of the team and he pointed to retaining the current bowling coach Bharat Arun and fielding coach R Sridhar. However, the current batting coach Sanjay Bangar is likely to face the axe, following the poor run of Indian batters in the recent past.
Bangar has been associated with the team since 2014, as a batting coach. He coached Indian team in 50 Tests and 119 ODIs. The entire process of selection of support staff is likely to go on till Thursday. During this time, batting, bowling and fielding coaches will be interviewed.
The BCCI extended the contract of Bangar, Arun Sridhar and the team’s administrative manager Sunil Subramaniam till the West Indies tour. Praveen Amre, Mumbai veteran Amol Mazumdar and Sitanshu Kotak of Saurashtra have also submitted the application for the batting coach. It is learned that former India batsman Hrishikesh Kanitkar and former Delhi batsman Mithun Minhas also appeared infront of the five-member panel interview.
Venkatesh Prasad, Paras Mahambre and Amit Bhandari appeared for the interview to be the bowling coach. Last week, the Kapil Dev-led Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) re-elected Ravi Shastri as the head coach of the Indian team till the 2021 World Cup.
Digitalsporty understands that R Sridhar and Bharat Arun are likely to retain their place as the fielding and bowling coach respectively. However, a new batting coach is expected to be elected in place of Bangar.
Likely support staff
Fielding coach- R. Sridhar
Bowling coach- Bharat Arun
Batting coach- Lalchand Rajput
