Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Ravi Shastri appointed as India’s head coach' that was published in Newsband

Ravi Shastri appointed as India’s head coach

Ravi Shastri, the former India all rounder and team director, has been appointed head coach of the national side until the 2019 World Cup. Zaheer Khan has been named bowling consultant and Rahul Dravid as batting consultant for overseas Test series. The BCCI's Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), comprising Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendullkar and VVS Laxman made this decision.,

The vacancy arose because Anil Kumble resigned after having differences with India captain Virat Kohli. Shastri had applied for the role in 2016 as well, and was disappointed to lose out to Kumble, because India had done well during his tenure as director.

The appointments bring to an end a period of uncertainty over the India coaching job that began at the end of May. Thus Shastri win the race. Shastri’s man management skills should be good and with good relation with captain we can expect good result overseas. He just needs to find new talent and show the doors to some players.

Zaheer Khan as bowling coach is a very good choice. He can give good insight to win overseas with existing fast bowlers as well as new talents. Rahul Dravid seems good choice also. Rahul can be next head coach after WC 19 till WC 23. What is left to be seen is how Kohli and Shastri will build team for WC 19 and how the team will perform in Australia, SA, NZ and England test tours.

Shastri only applied with a condition that he should be selected. Virat Kohli supported Shastri fully. Rahul Dravid is the batting consultant on overseas test tours in addition to Bangar. His main job is to offer the odd batting advice to the batsmen who are struggling apart from sharing his experiences as a former batsman in those countries. India needs to win test tours overseas (apart from winning test matches at home which they are doing regularly for last 25 years). That should be the topmost priority.

Sad to see Kumble go especially after he did well and since the only reason was his insistence on hard work and discipline. Having said that, Shastri isn’t a bad option. Kohli is now held accountable for results, especially on overseas tours.

Good to see Zaheer and Dravid in support staff. However, does the appointment of these two speak about Shastri's limitations as a coach? Indian team will perform well in SL as SL team itself is a depleted team. The real test of Shastri will be when the team goes to Australia and South Africa. Anyway, All the best to Shastri and let’s hope he performs up to the expectation.