File photo of India head coach Rahul Dravid and captain Rohit Sharma.© AFP
With current India head coach Rahul Dravid’s tenure set to end after the T20 World Cup, reports have claimed that former batter Gautam Gambhir is set to take over the high-pressure job. A few days back, it was reported that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had contacted Gambhir for the job, and the former opening batter gave the green light after the board accepted soe of his demands. Now, another report has claimed that Gambhir is the only candidate to have applied for the head coach job.
According to the Indian Express, Gambhir will appear for an interview before the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) over a Zoom call on Tuesday. This comes after the BCCI had invited applications for the post in mid-May and the deadline was May 27.
Gambhir is currently the mentor of KKR, who won the IPL 2024 title after beating SRH in the final on May 26, a day before the deadline to apply for the head coach job.
The report also claimed that the CAC, comprising of former cricketers Ashok Malhotra, Jatin Paranjpe and Sulakshana Naik, will also take interviews for the vacant selector’s spot from North Zone.
Currently, chief selection committee chief Ajit Agarkar and Salil Ankola are both from West Zone, with the new selector from North Zone set to replace the latter.
Ankola was already part of the selection committee when BCCI appointed Agarkar as the chief, replacing Chetan Sharma, who found himself in hot water over a sting operation controversy.
After conducting the interviews, the CAC will make recommendations to the BCCI over the head coach and the new selector’s post.
“We are conducting an interview session for candidates for the post of head coach and selector. The CAC will submit its recommendation to the BCCI and the board will make an official announcement thereafter,” the Indian Express quoted a BCCI official as saying.
The tenure of the new coach, which is most likely to Gambir, starts in July 2024 and stretches to December 31, 2027 – the year of the next ODI World Cup.
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