The former opener Vikram Rathour is set to replace Sanjay Bangar as the new batting coach of India, mentioned by the MSK Prasad-led selection committee. Bharat Arun and R Sridhar were retained as the bowling and fielding coach respectively.
The selection committee has listed out three names among 14 candidates in which Rathour was their first priority followed by Bangar and Mark Ramprakash. Paras Mhambrey and Venkatesh Prasad were ranked below Bharat Arun for the position of bowling coach while Abhay Sharma and T Dilip were named after R Sridhar for the post of fielding coach.
The MSK Prasad-led selection committee who has recommended three names each and the support staff will be appointed based on the priority list.
The committee will have a meeting with BCCI executives regards with the finalization of candidates followed with their contract for a two-year period ending with the World T20 in 2021 in India. These follow the appointment of Ravi Shastri as the head coach of the Indian team for the same period of time.
Chairman of Selectors, MSK Prasad speaks about R Sridhar's contribution to #TeamIndia and why Jonty Rhodes didn't make the cut. pic.twitter.com/IuWH5FeHI2
— BCCI (@BCCI) August 22, 2019
“Vikram Rathour has got enough experience and we are convinced with his skill sets (as a coach). We will ask him to declare if he has any conflict. The team management had their own views but looking ahead, we felt there should be some freshness in the support staff.”- BCCI CEO Rahul Johri said.
Vikram Rathour has played six Tests and seven ODI’s in 1996 and till 2016 he was a senior national selector under Sandeep Patil’s chairmanship. Now he has been the first choice as the batting coach for the selection panel.
BCCI CEO Mr Rahul Johri explains the process ahead for the appointment of #TeamIndia Support Staff. pic.twitter.com/DmoFkmYjRs
— BCCI (@BCCI) August 22, 2019
“While the first candidate will be preferred for the role, the second and third-ranked candidates could be used for NCA and India A roles. We will recommend it to Rahul Dravid, the Director of Cricket at the NCA,” – MSK Prasad said.
The panel also recommended Nitin Patel as physiotherapist and Girish Dongre as the administrative manager to be their first choice.
The selection committee has also shortlisted five candidates for the post of strength and conditioning coach. Luke Woodhouse, Grant Ludden, Rajnikanth Sivagnanam, Nick Webb and Anand Date are the five selected candidates. Further, these selected five candidates will be through the next phase of the interview.
