Former Indian all-rounder, Sanjay Bangar’s journey as Batting coach has come to an end after the West Indies tour. He served the national team for a period of five years and now was replaced by Vikram Rathour. BCCI has retained Ravi Shastri as head coach, along with the fielding coach, R Sridhar, and bowling coach, Bharat Arun and axed Bangar.
Sanjay Bangar was not happy with his removal and further went on to the selector Devang Gandhi’s room even when the interviews of the coaching staff were going on, to confront him after being dropped as the coach. It was reported that BCCI was not happy with the Bangar behavior during his tenure with Team India.
The incident and indiscipline of Bangar were brought to the notice of the chief of the Supreme Court-appointed CoA Vinod Rai. Meanwhile, Bangar made all the talks relating to his alleged rift with the selector and went on to say that there wasn’t any heated argument.
“It is fictitious. I had a cordial exchange with him three days after the selection process was over. It was related to my presentation. There was no heated argument,” – Bangar said.
The reports stated that BCCI might question Bangar if head coach Ravi Shastri or outgoing team manager Sunil Subramaniam complain about it.
After Bangar was out of the post as the batting coach, he wished Rathour on his role and also said that he doesn’t have any regrets whatsoever.
Earlier, Bangar joined the team when Duncan Fletcher was the head coach and he worked under both Shastri and Anil Kumble, who resigned in 2017. Under him, team India’s batsmen did well across formats but his inability to find a suitable number four batsman was one of the reasons that would have gone against him.
Finally, Bangar stated that he was happy to leave the Indian team with a strong middle-order, especially in Test cricket. He feels that the openers should be strengthened in the overseas condition. When he came into the national setup, India was ranked number five in Test cricket and he left the team as ICC’s number-one ranked Test team.
“We won 30 of 52 Tests and 82 off 122 ODIs. We were consistent (from 2014 to 2019) and beat all countries in their home conditions. I take immense pride in being part of this journey,” – Bangar said.