Ravi Shastri

Former Indian cricketer Ravi Shastri was born on 27 May, 1962 in Mumbai, as Ravishankar Jayadritha Shastri. He played for the international side of the Indian cricket team in both formats - Test and One-Day International (ODI) - and was one of the most popular and top-performing players of his time. Ravi Shastri is the current Head Coach of Team India until 2019. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) earlier denied it. But it was later officially announced on July11 that Ravi Shastri will be the Head Coach of Team India cricket, while former player Zaheer Khan will be the Bowling Coach and former batsman Rahul Dravid the Batting Coach. But Ravi Shastri in his powers has recommended Bharat Arun to be the Bowling Coach), Sanjay Bangar to be the Batting Coach and R Sridhar to be the Fielding Coach.

Ravi Shastri played for India between 1981 to 1992 as an opening batsman or middle order batsman, and a left-arm spinner. He was also the vice-captain of the Indian cricket team. Ravi Shastri served as the Director of the Indian cricket team, before having to step down when former India pacer Anil Kumble was appointed Head Coach. But Anil Kumble has now after a year resigned from his position as Team India Head Coach, after irreconcilable differences with Indian Captain Virat Kohli. Applications for the post were invited afresh by the BCCI and Ravi Shastri applied for it. Ravi Shastri was most likely to be appointed Coach of Team India again by the BCCI's Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), with some competition from former India swashbuckling batsman Virender Sehwag. On July 11, 2017, there were strong rumours that Ravi Shastri has been appointed Head Coach of Team India and that his tenure will last for two years, until the ODI format ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 (the 2019 Cricket World Cup). ALSO READ: 13 things you may not know about Ravi Shastri.

The other applicants that had been shortlisted by the CAC for the post of Team India Coach were players Tom Moody, Phil Simmons, Richard Pybus and Lalchand Rajput. In toto, there were 10 applicants in 2017 for the post of Coach for Team India, namely players Ravi Shastri, Virender Sehwag, Richard Pybus, Tom Moody, Dodda Ganesh, Lalchand Rajput, Phil Simmons, and Lance Klusener, as well as Rakesh Sharma, Oman national team coach, and Upendranath Bramhachari, reportedly an engineer with no background in cricket. The CAC comprises the legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and his equally talented contemporaries Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman. Read exclusive column by VVS Laxman!

By Shweta Parande