After the reappointment of Ravi Shastri as the head coach, the focus now shifts to the appointment of his support staff which include the roles of bowling coach, fielding coach as well as the batting coach. The CAC, which selected Shastri, will not be a part of this process as the selectors led by MSK Prasad will be entrusted with the job of selecting the support staff.
As reported by news agency, IANS, a BCCI functionary said that the Board would wait for the completion of the whole process before making announcements on the respective positions.
The selection committee will pick the support staff
"The process starts today and will continue till Thursday. The announcements of the candidates will be made on Thursday after the whole process is completed. No point going one name at a time," the functionary was as quoted by IANS.
The report also mentioned that the CAC wanted to be a part of the process of the support staff selection as well, but as per the new BCCI constitution, it would have been against the stipulated rules. As per the newly registered constitution, the CAC will appoint the head coach while the national selectors will rope in the support staff.
As far as the appointments are concerned, it is widely expected that Bharat Arun would continue as the bowling coach as India's bowling has been stellar under his watch. Also, the fielding standards have seen a remarkable improvement under R Sridhar, which could well mean that he continues in his role.
"In the last four-five years, the biggest improvement has been in fielding. And the endeavour is to make this side the best fielding team in the world. It's a clear diktat to whosoever wants to play in this team to have the spectacular standard of fielding, especially in white-ball cricket," Shastri said after his re-appointment.
Sanjay Bangar's position as the batting coach will be the most-debated as India's batting, barring Kohli and Pujara in Test matches and Kohli and Rohit in ODIs has left a lot to be desired. The big applicants for this role are Pravin Amre and Vikram Rathour. If different reports are to be believed, Rathour is the favourite to bag the job.
We now have to await the announcement which will be made public only on Thursday.