Ravi Shastri appointed Interim India Coach

Former Cricketer turned Commentator Ravi Shastri was appointed as interim coach for India’s tour of Bangladesh. Sanjay Bangar, Bharat Arun and R Sridhar will continue to be the batting, bowling and fielding coaches respectively, a post which was allotted to them during the ODI series in England last year. Also, Biswaroop Dey was named as the team’s administrative manager for the tour.

This is Shastri’s second stint as team India coach to Bangladesh tour after 2007, when he was appointed the coach following Greg Chappell’s departure.

The announcement which was made by BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur, officially meant that Duncan Fletcher’s role in the support staff has ended and he contract will not be renewed.

Shastri’s role as coach will now be different as to what it is when he was the team Director. Earlier, he was to be facilitator between the players, coaches and the BCCI, but now the entire responsibility of preparing the team for the tour comes to his shoulders.

What worked in Shastri’s favour was the rapport he shared with the current crop of players and the respect he commands. It’s said that players were quite happy in the past 6-7 months when he was the director.

The Indian cricket team will arrive in Kolkata on June 5 and thereafter depart for Bangladesh to play a three match ODI series and a one off Test starting 10th June.

More to follow..