Ignored for the head coach's position, Lalchand Rajput was among the aspirants appearing for interviews on Monday to pick the support staff of the Indian cricket team, joining heavyweights such as Venkatesh Prasad.
The senior selection committee, led by former stumper MSK Prasad, started an extensive process to pick the support staff.
As many as 13 candidates were interviewed for the batting coach role and five for bowling coach. Incumbents -- batting coach Sanjay Bangar, bowling coach Bharat Arun and fielding coach R Sridhar -- will be interviewed on Tuesday.
However, Arun and Sridhar have emerged favourites to retain their posts after head coach Ravi Shastri stressed on retaining the staff.
Bangar faces a tough challenge with most of the applications received for the batting coach's post. The former India all-rounder has been with the team since 2014 during which India have played 50 Tests and 119 ODIs.
The process is expected to be completed only by Thursday after all the interviews for various positions including batting, bowling and fielding coach are done with.
The current support staff comprising Bangar, Arun and Sridhar and administrative manager Sunil Subramanium were given a 45-day contract extension covering the ongoing tour of the West Indies.
One of the candidates said that giving presentation was not mandatory.
Last week, the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) comprising 1983 World Cup winning captain Kapil Dev, former player and coach Anshuman Gaikwad and former women's captain Shantha Rangaswamy had reappointed Shastri as the team's coach till the end of T20 World Cup in 2021.
The CAC had also asked for a say in the process to select the support staff, but the BCCI constitution doesn't allow that.
As per the criteria for batting, bowling and fielding coach, the three personnel should have played at least 10 Tests or 25 ODIs and be less than 60 years of age.
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