Ravi Shastri, the current director of the Indian team is set to get an official extension of two years. This means that Shastri will be at the helm of affairs of the side for the 2016 T20 World Cup. Along with Shastri, the three assistant coaches, Sanjay Bangar, Bharat Arun and R. Sridhar too will be awarded with their respective contracts.
Shastri’s presence in the dressing room has already been approved by Kohli and Dhoni, the skippers of the test and the limited overs sides respectively. After consulting the two skippers, the BCCI offered Shastri the contract. Apart from the two captains, several players of the Indian side too showered praises on Shastri. The likes of Suresh Raina, Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane have been vocal supporters of Shastri.
Recently, during a post match press conference in Bangladesh, Dhoni did hint that the side did not need a full time coach at the moment. Dhoni indicated that the current culture of the side, where Shastri was the boss, was perfect. “If you are indirectly hinting that we need a coach and all that, we have enough people in the support staff to take care of us,” Dhoni said after the second ODI in Bangladesh.
“Even if the position of the coach is vacant for some time, it is okay. Don’t put just anybody there just because the post is vacant. Then it will have a bad impact in the long run. It takes time to make these decisions, and our team generally doesn’t have that time because we keep playing non-stop,” Dhoni said back then.
Ravi Shastri was named as the director of Indian cricket for a temporary period in August 2014, after the test side had been humiliated in England. Under Shastri’s efficient guidance, the Indians defeated England in an ODI series. That was followed by beating the West Indies and then whitewashing Sri Lanka in a 5 match series. In the test series in Australia, the side might not have achieved the desired results, but still managed to put up an impressive fight. The best achievement under Shastri for the Indians was their performance of the 2015 World Cup.
With Shastri already gaining tremendous backing and respect of the players, his direction to the side will surely be a masterstroke.