The rumors surrounding the support staff for Ravi Shastri has finally be put to rest as Sanjay Bangar has been appointed as the assistant coach with Bharat Arun taking over as the bowling coach of India. Those appointments were made official in the presence of newly-appointed India coach Ravi Shastri in Mumbai.
Both Arun and Bangar will be on a two-year contract that will end at the conclusion of the 2019 World Cup. R Sridhar remains the fielding coach while Patrick Farhat will be the Indian team’s physio and Shankar Basu will continue to be the trainer.
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The biggest takeaway from the brief press conference was the lack of clarity or confirmation surrounding the roles of former Indian internationals, Rahul Dravid and Zaheer Khan. Dravid and Zaheer were earlier reportedly announced as batting and bowling consultants for overseas tours although Ravi Shastri reaffirmed that the inputs from both players are welcome. and hinted that they could still take up that role.
Speaking about the issue, Shastri said: “I’ve spoken to both the individuals. As good as three or four days ago. Both were fantastic cricketers of India and their inputs will be invaluable. They will be on board once they have spoken to the authorities concerned. There is no issues on that.”
When asked about the contract of both Dravid and Zaheer, Shastri said “it depends on the individual and how many days they want to give but their inputs will be invaluable and they are most welcome. And both the gentleman I have already spoken to personally.”
Bharat Arun, who is the coach of the VB Thiruvallur Veerans, in the ongoing Tamil Nadu Premier League and the bowling coach of the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League will have to relinquish his responsibilities with both sides. This will also be the second time that Arun is part of the support staff under Shastri as the 54-year-old was the bowling coach between 2014-16 when Shastri was the Director of the Indian side.
Sanjay Bangar, who was India’s batting coach during the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 will begin his stint as assistant coach from the tour to Sri Lanka, which begins on July 26 and consists of three Tests, five ODIs and a solitary T20I.
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