The Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) will interview six shortlisted candidates – Mike Hesson, Tom Moody, Robin Singh, Lalchand Rajput, Phil Simmons and Ravi Shastri – for India’s head coach’s job for the men’s team at the BCCI headquarters on Friday.
Kapil Dev, Shantha Rangaswamy, Anshuman Gaekwad have informed the candidates on Monday. There were more than 10,000 applicants for the job and the committee has shortlisted six of them.
Ravi Shastri is the front-runner for the job once again, thanks to Virat Kohli’s backing which will be considered as well. Ravi Shastri’s terms will come to an end after the West Indies tour.
Mike Hesson, the former New Zealand coach is one of the most loved coaches for the country and him along with Brendon McCullum was a part of a revolution in the New Zealand cricket. He coached Kings XI Punjab this season before quitting recently.
Lalchand Rajput, the former Indian coach, led the team to the famous 2007 World Cup T20 win followed by the CB series in Australia. He also coached India A, Afghanistan and is currently with Zimbabwe. Also, he recently led Winnipeg Hawks to GLT20 win.
Tom Moody, the former Australian cricketer, coached Sunrisers Hyderabad for the past six years and the team once went on to win the trophy under his guidance and once were runners up.
Robin Singh, the former Indian cricketer also was India’s fielding coach before taking up the job with Mumbai Indians. He also guided Barbados Tridents for the Caribbean Premier League win.
Phil Simmons, the former West Indian cricketer was recently the coach of Afghanistan. He coached Zimbabwe then became the most successful coach of Ireland. Under him, the team won 11 trophies and had famous victories over major teams including England, Pakistan. After that, he won the T20 trophy in 2016 with West Indies.
While the chances of Ravi Shastri getting back his job is high, Hesson is under the radar as well.