Former Indian team director Ravi Shastri decided to apply for the position of Indian team”s head coach. He was the director of the team between 2014 and 2016 during which he led India to the semi-finals of the World Cup in 2015.

Shastri had also applied for the job last year but Anil Kumble was preferred over him. Kumble had resigned as the coach of the Indian cricket team last week. This came after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decided to not renew his one-year contract and invited fresh applications for the top post.

Kumble”s contract as the head coach of the Indian team expired after the ICC Champions Trophy and he was not interested in an extension.

Shastri was not among the people who had applied for the post of Head Coach when the BCCI had issued the first release. That list included Virender Sehwag, Tom Moody, Richard Pybus and Lalchand Rajput, among others.

During Shastri”s tenure as Team Director, India won the Test series in Sri Lanka after a gap of 22 years and also outplayed South Africa 3-0 in a four-Test home series before clinching the Asia Cup.

It then came out that Shastri desperately wanted to continue his association with the Indian team, but the BCCI”s Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), comprising of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman, chose Kumble ahead of Shastri.

It will now be interesting to see whether Shastri appears for an interview with CAC or he is directly chosen for the top post. Shastri is believed to have shared a cordial relationship with Kohli and other members of the team. It is also reported that, prior to Kumble’s appointment, Kohli had recommended Shastri to take over as head coach to the Cricket Advisory Committee.

– by Saika Mazumdar