Sourav Ganguly had reservations about Ravi Shastri’s appointment as Team India coach: Sources

Ravi Shastri has been appointed as India head coach till the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 in England.

Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) member Sourav Ganguly had reservations about selecting Ravi Shastri as India’s new head coach. Ganguly and Shastri relation has not been the most cordial of sorts, ever since the former appointed Anil Kumble as India’s coach in 2016. It took a lot of convincing from co-member Sachin Tendulkar to get Ganguly to approve of the choice. Shastri has worked with India as Team Director and also as a manager in the past. Last evening, the BCCI appointed Shastri as India head coach till the 2019 World Cup in England.

As reported by sports.ndtv.com, there was tough competition between Shastri and Virender Sehwag, but it was Indian skipper Virat Kohli’s opinion helped CAC take the final verdict. According to a BCCI source, Tendulkar talked to Ganguly about giving in the team’s wishes and keeping personal reservations away. Ganguly did manage to have his say in the appointing the bowling coach. Shastri wanted  Bharath Arun as bowling coach, but Ganguly ensured that Zaheer Khan was given in charge of the duties.

“Sourav was brought around and convinced about Ravi after it was agreed that Zaheer would be made the bowling coach,” a BCCI official told PTI.

Apart from Shastri and Zaheer, the CAC also appointed India Under-19 and India-A coach, Rahul Dravid as India’s overseas batting consultant. India are to tour Sri Lanka, South Africa and England in the 2017-2018 season apart from playing home series against Australia and Sri Lanka.