Incumbent Ravi Shastri will continue his role as Team India head coach after the three-member Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) comprising Kapil Dev, Anshuman Gaekwad and Shantha Rangaswamy gave his candidature a nod on Friday at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai.
Shastri has been given a two-year contract which will see him at the helm till the 2021 World T20 in India.
This will be Shastri’s fourth stint with the national team, having served briefly as the Cricket Manager (2007 tour of Bangladesh), Team Director (2014-2016) and head coach (2017-2019).
Shastri pipped former India teammates Robin Singh and Lalchand Rajput along with former New Zealand coach Mike Hesson and Australian Tom Moody to the post. Former West Indies and Afghanistan coach Phil Simmons pulled out of the race, citing personal reasons.
“Number three was Tom Moody, number two was Mike Hesson. Number one is Ravi Shastri as all of you were expecting... (But) It was a very close race.”Kapil Dev, CAC member
Shastri, who has the backing of Team India skipper Virat Kohli, was always the front runner to retain his position as the head coach.
“All of us share a great camaraderie with Ravi bhai and would definitely be very happy (to have him around).”Virat Kohli
Among all the candidates, Shastri's record was unmatched as the team reached the No.1 ranking in Test matches under his guidance and won a series in Australia for the first time in 71 years.
On the flip-side, India twice lost in the World Cup semi-finals (2015 and 2019) with him at the helm but that doesn't seem to have a bearing on the decision taken.
Since he came back in July, 2017 replacing Anil Kumble, whose differences with Kohli came out in the open, Shastri's coaching record has been phenomenal.
India have won 13 out of 21 Tests, 43 out of 60 ODIs and 25 T20 Internationals out of 36 on his watch.
Moody and Henson, who were the other two big names in the running, didn’t stand much chance as the CAC wasn't too keen on a foreign face. After facing a similar fate in 2005, 2008 and 2017, this is the fourth time Moody’s candidature has been rejected.
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