Mumbai: After his appointment as Team India’s Head Coach, Ravi Shastri had his way when Bharat Arun was re-appointed the bowling coach on Tuesday. It means Shastri will work with the same set of coaches — including fielding coach R Sridhar - who assisted him in his earlier tenure as Team Director (2014-16).
Australia’s Patrick Farhart and Shankar Basu also retained their positions as physio and trainer respectively. Shastri and support staff have been given two-year contracts, until the end of the 2019 World Cup.
Arun was selected after BCCI had earlier named Zaheer Khan as bowling consultant and Rahul Dravid as batting consultant for overseas tours. Shastri defended his colleague’s return, saying his record as coach is there to speak for himself.
“There is track record which is outstanding. Fifteen years of his life has been coaching. He has been with A teams, U-19 teams, junior World Cup teams. He knows the boys better than I do.
“In the last World Cup, our bowlers took 77 out of 80 wickets. If he was a big name with lot of Tests, you would have put him on the top of the tree. I don’t need to elaborate too much on what he is good at. It is there for everyone to see.”
Shastri feels he has matured immensely in the last two weeks, a period that saw dramatic developments leading unto his appointment to the high-profile job. Shastri had applied for head coach’s post before losing to Anil Kumble last year.
Recalling the time since last Lanka tour when he was the Team Director, Shastri said he has matured a lot.
“I have matured since we last went to Sri Lanka. I feel have matured immensely in the last two weeks,” he said at the per-departure press conference for the series.
Shastri was chosen under dramatic circumstances after he applied again for head coach’s job after the deadline for application was extended and he became India’s head coach for the first time ahead of the big names like Virender Sehwag and Tom Moody.
“I don’t come with any baggage. The team has done exceedingly well in the last three years, they are the people who deserve credit. The Ravi Shastris and Anil Kumbles will come and go. If India are the number one Test team today, it is because of the effort of the players. “People will come and go. The fabric of Indian cricket will remain the same,” he said. He also spoke about the importance of communication between the captain and the support staff.
“When you play the game, you want your your mind clear u want to focus inwards without caring outsideand that happens with good communication with the support staff,” Shastri said. “My job is to exactly do that to put every player in this frame of mind so that hethink’s about his own game.”
