A look at the contenders for the Indian head coach spot before the judgement day

Former Indian internal Ravi Shastri stands as the firm favourite to grab the spot for the new Indian Head Coach as we inch closer to the judgement day. The Cricket Advisory Committee comprised of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman will host the interviews tomorrow (10th July) from 1 pm India time.

The candidates:

There are a plethora of options available to the BCCI in the form of Ravi Shastri, Virender Sehwag, Richard Pybus, Tom Moody, Lalchand Rajput, Dodda Ganesh, Lance Klusener, Rakesh Sharma, Phil Simmons and Upendranath Brahmachari who is an engineer with no cricketing background.

The BCCI is to eliminate some of the names from the list and make it shorter today on 9th July. Apparently, the Cricket Advisory Committee is planning to sit down with a final six which are likely to be Ravi Shastri, Virender Sehwag, Lalchand Rajput, Tom Moody, Richard Pybus and Phil Simmons.

The gates opened up for the head coach spot after legendary leg-spinner Anil Kumble decided to resign with dignity following India’s Champions Trophy campaign. Complications between Kumble and skipper Virat Kohli arose during the Champions Trophy itself which led to the former’s stepping down.

The CAC is scheduled to appoint the new coach today and he will be handed over a two-year contract till the 2019 ICC World Cup.

Ravi Shastri applied for the position after the BCCI decided to extend their deadline date for submitting an application to 9^th July. Ravi Shastri is known to have a smooth relation with Virat Kohli and that might just work in favour of the active commentator. However, Shastri had some recent disputes with Sourav Ganguly recently who is an integral part of the CAC. It is believed that none other than Sachin Tendulkar supports the selection of Shastri in the CAC panel.

Virender Sehwag is another strong candidate available to the Indian Cricket Board. Sehwag was a destructive batsman and a player of the highest quality but his abilities as a coach are still in doubt. He was the mentor of the Kings XI in IPL’s iconic 10th edition but failed to take his team to the playoff stages.

Tom Moody appeared for the interview last year too but was beaten to the task by Anil Kumble. Moody has a bag full of experience as a coach both in the international scene and the franchise scene. His calm nature and his capability to work from behind the scenes is always a plus point.

Lalchand Rajput can’t also be ignored when the CAC sit down with the names tomorrow. Lalchand Rajput has been there done that. He was given the responsibility of guiding the Indian team after the departure of Greg Chappell following a dismal World Cup 2007 campaign. Rajput made history as a coach in his first attempt itself as India lifted the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007 under his mentorship.