What India lack is a good bowling coach: Dean Jones

Virat Kohli’s suggestion must be taken before India pick their next coach, feels Dean Jones

Former Australian cricketer Dean Jones has questioned the current support staff of the Indian team, asking whether or not the team has the best possible backroom staff that one needs for a side at the international level. Following India’s performance in Test series in England, The BCCI appointed Sanjay Bangar, Bharat Arun and R Sridhar as the batting, bowling and fielding coaches respectively in place of Trevor Penney and Joe Dawes, and also made Ravi Shastri the Director of Cricket. Duncan Fletcher, however, retained his position as the head coach.

"The question to ask here is this, have they got the best coaching staff that money can buy?" Jones asked.

"Have they got the best staff available at the moment? Clearly the results haven't shown so," he added.

Constant changes in the support staff is not a solution to the problems: Jones

The 53-year-old added that frequent changes to the support staff will not give India a permanent solution to their problems and added that the Indian team needs a good bowling coach, who can guide them in the right direction.

"Changing staff again and again isn't a solution either and certainly not one that I recommend. But then has there been a difference in performance from England to Australia, particularly of the bowlers? They bowled short and wide in England and they have bowled short and wide in Australia. And India have lost both series despite playing some competitive cricket," Jones said.

"A proper bowling coach, a big name, an ex-cricketer might be able to help these young bowlers better. They have the pace and the ability to swing the ball, they have the talent. They just don't know to use it,” he added.

India should play with five bowlers in overseas Tests: Jones

He also reckoned that India must adopt the five bowler theory if they are to win Test matches, while on travels.

"Look the problem for India has been very simple. They cannot get 20 wickets. If they cannot do it with four bowlers, they must do it with five bowlers. Look at R Ashwin. He is a decent bat. Wriddhiman Saha has good technique too.

"In overseas Tests these two will have to do the job of the sixth batsman and India need to play four other bowlers, an extra spinner along with Ashwin and three medium-pacers,” he said.

"It will give Kohli more control and more options to play around with. He looked clueless when they were getting hit all over the park the other day. Australia scored 200 runs in one session. And the Indian attack was bowling short and wide after playing in this country for the last two months. You cannot bowl like that in one-dayers or the outcome will be pretty similar," Jones said.

He further added that new Indian Test captain Virat Kohli must have a say, when a new coach is picked post the World Cup.

“Virat Kohli is the Test skipper now and he will be the ODI and T20 captain in the time to come. So he must have someone he is comfortable with and together they must work for the betterment of Indian cricket," the former right-hander said.

They need to come out of the mess their Test team is in, and a new aggressive captain with a new coach should help achieve that. And they have a lot of time on their hands, to pick a proper coach after the World Cup and the IPL. There is a good 3-4 months to settle down on some good choices," he added.

Bowlers will need to step in the limited-overs format: Jones

Jones also said that India’s biggest worry in the upcoming limited-overs leg of their tour of Australia will again be the bowling and added that India definitely have a bigger chance in the shorter format of the game.

"Limited overs cricket is a different ballgame. India definitely have a chance because their batting is quite good and they can chase targets.

"The bowlers have pace and swing so they can use that in ODI matches here as well if they bowl well. But if they don't bowl proper line and lengths, how many times will the batsmen rescue the team, even in ODI matches?" he said.