Ravi Shastri's come back or new face? CAC to pick Indian coach today

All eyes are on the CAC as the decision might give another chance to the former Indian captain Ravi Shastri who was also the team director for a while or any new face among strong contenders like Virender Sehwag, Tom Moody.

CAC, comprising  former cricketers, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman, will meet in Mumbai on Monday to select the next Indian coach.

Apart from Shastri, former cricketers like Virender Sehwag, Lalchand Rajput, Tom Moody, Richard Pybus, Phil Simmons and Dodda Ganesh are in the panel for the selection.  

The post  fell vacant after Anil Kumble stepped down as the head coach on June 20 following the rumours regarding his rift with the Indian captain Virat Kohli.

While the Cricket Advisory Committee had endorsed an extension to his tenure as head coach, Kumble decided not to continue.

He was appointed as the coach over Ravi Sashtri by the Cricket Advisory Committee, last year.

Issuing a statement on Twitter, Kumble had said: "I was informed for the first time yesterday by the BCCI that the Captain had reservations with my 'style' and about my continuing as the Head Coach."

The former Indian coach even said he was surprised to hear from BCCI about Kohli's 'reservations', since he believes that he always maintained "respected role boundaries between Captain and Coach".

As a coach, Kumble's performance was outstanding with no series defeat in the entire last season of both test cricket and One Day International matches.

The former Indian spinner, who also led the Indian team for sometime in test cricket, admitted that BCCI tried to resolve issues between him and Kohli but certainly felt the "partnership was untenable", so he decided to "move on".

Rumours were going on for last few months about the possible rift between Indian captain Virat Kohli and coach Anil Kumble, though the news was not confirmed any way.

Kohli, in a press conference during Champions Trophy last month, said these were made up stories by the media. It was nothing but the minor disagreement between them, he said.

Prior to the end of Champions Trophy, BCCI has also put up a notice for the selection of a new coach. While Virender Sehwag applied for the job, Kumble was given a free entry to the process.

Sehwag expressed his opinion in coach selection as he said Indian coach is always better than foreigners as they can understand the team better. However, the record counter his words. Indian team remarkably done well under two foreign coaches, John Wright and Gary Kirsten. Under Wright's tenure, India reached the final of 2003 WC and the former South African player Kirsten took the team to win the title in 2011.

While Sehwag is yet to be tested as a coach, Shastri's record as the team director was appreciable. It was under his tenure, India reached the World Cup 2015 semi final and went on to win the Asia Cup 2016.

However, Shastri's appointment as the coach would be interesting as he was involved in a verbal spat with one of the members of CAC, Sourav Ganguly. A year ago, Shastri held Ganguly responsible for not getting the job of head coach. The former team director passed some personal comments against Ganguly, to which the latter reacted strongly.

The controversy went on for sometime in the media but the sharing of stage by the two greats in IPL and recently concluded ICC Champions Trophy suggest that may be the ice melted.

Tom Moody is one of the strong contenders for the post as he led the Sri Lankan team to the final in 2007 World Cup. Moody had earlier applied for the coach's place back in 2005 but former Australian captain Greg Chappell was selected over him.

Speaking about the coach selection, Indian captain Virat Kohli said the whole team will give their opinion on the selection if at all asked.

India's next tour to Sri Lanka will begin from July 26. Both the teams will play three test matches, five ODIs and one T20.

Images: Official Facebook page of Sourav Ganguly, Ravi Shastri, Anil Kumble and official Twitter handle of Anil Kumble.