The Big Story: Best man?

Former India cricketer and team director Ravi Shastri on Tuesday indicated that he would throw his name in the hat for the post of head coach of the men’s cricket team. The position was left vacant after the unceremonious exit of Anil Kumble on June 20 a year into the job, following weeks of speculation of a rift between him and skipper Virat Kohli. Incidentally, it was Shastri who made way for Kumble a year ago.

After initially refusing to send in his application for the post, Shastri on Tuesday agreed to be part of the process, and there are many reasons to suggest he is the overwhelming favourite. Shastri, it is believed, gets along swimmingly with Kohli. Following a tumultuous year with Kumble, the India captain will want a normal relationship with whoever comes on board as the new coach.

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Shastri has a proven record, having come in as team director at a point when India were at somewhat similar crossroads, when former coach Duncan Fletcher was asked to step down. Shastri then led India to the semi-finals of the 2015 World Cup and the 2016 World Twenty20. The 55-year-old has the obvious advantage over other applicants in that he doesn’t need time to settle in since he knows the team and the setup well.

Shastri may be the front-runner for the post, but his re-entry into the India setup might not be as straightforward, considering the events that occurred in the lead-up to Kumble’s appointment in 2016.

After a fine run as team director, Shastri had applied for the post of head coach last year. The application, though, did not pass muster. Among the varied reports that floated around his rejection, it was widely claimed that former India captain Sourav Ganguly, who was one of the interviewers, was at odds with Shastri. Ganguly had even skipped Shastri’s interview, adding further fuel to the speculation.

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Shastri will have to sit in front of the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s Cricket Advisory Committee, comprising Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman, and make his case again. Circumstances, though, have changed since last year. Time is running out for the Indian team ahead of the 2019 World Cup. After failing to resolve the rift between Kohli and Kumble, it is imperative for the new coach to have a smooth transition, given that he will get only two years before the big tournament.

Picking Shastri does seem like the safest option for the Cricket Advisory Committee at this stage, unless they still feel as strongly as they did about him last year. The decision to extend the deadline for applications for the post also indicates that the committee was not quite enthused with the applicants, which included former India opener Virender Sehwag and former Australia skipper Tom Moody.

With Shastri now in the fray, the Cricket Advisory Committee will need a very strong reason to reject him again.

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The Big Scroll

  • Wright vs Chappell vs Kirsten vs Kumble: Which style of coaching suits India best, ask Kushal Phatarpekar and Angikaar Choudhury.
  • Kohli may be responsible for Kumble’s exit, but Tendulkar, Ganguly and Laxman are as much to blame, writes Angikaar Choudhury.
  • Anil Kumble’s forced exit makes Virat Kohli and Co look like entitled brats, says Prem Panicker.

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Punditry

  1. Why are Indian news channels so disappointing? Ashok Malik in the Hindustan Times claims it is because of systemic economic issues, and not the choices of the journalists at the channels.
  2. Manas Chakravarty in Mint puts together six charts examining the deep structural faults in India’s growth story.
  3. “Conditions that lead to regressive income redistribution are accepted as the unavoidable norm, but the danger of credit indiscipline and moral hazard is considered too serious to ignore,” writes CP Chandrashekhar in BloombergQuint.
  4. Reshmi Khanna in the Hindu breaks down the recent actions based on the bankruptcy and insolvency code and considers how this will actually play out.
  5. “The inescapable conclusion is that India’s challenge of finding long-term funds is far too ambitious, and perhaps a more realistic target of $500 billion is more achievable,” writes Ajit Ranade in Mint.

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