New Delhi, India
The deadline for applying for Team India head coach post, as set by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), has finally arrived. For the unversed, the Sourav Ganguly-led board had invited applications for several posts in the team, such as the head coach, batting coach, bowling coach, fielding coach and head sports science for NCA. Leaving out the head coach's role, the deadline for all other post will come to an end on November 03.
A few weeks back, reports suggested that India's former captain Rahul Dravid had given his nod to apply for the national side's head coach post -- after Ravi Shastri's end of tenure post the T20 World Cup. It is to be noted that Dravid is yet to formally apply for the post. Currently, he remains the head of the National Cricket Academy (NCA), at Bengaluru.
Earlier, it was reported that Dravid wasn't keen to take up the Team India head coach post due to his unwillingness to spend a lot of time away from his young family. However, after some talks he has reportedly considered the role. Nonetheless, he asked for some more time. BCCI president Ganguly had also confirmed that his former teammate hasn't officially given his nod for the top post.
"There is no confirmation (On Dravid becoming coach). If he wants to apply, he will apply, the process has to happen. For now, he is the coach of NCA and I believe NCA has a big role to play in Indian cricket. I have spoken to him earlier about this as well and he was not that interested and I feel the situation is still the same. He has asked for some time, let's see what happens," Ganguly had told India Today.
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Due to his astonishing record as India A and U-19 coach, from 2016-2019, Dravid is being touted to be the perfect replacement of Shastri and take up the Team India coaching role. Nonetheless, it seems that the picture will get clearer by the end of Tuesday (October 26).
Dravid also served as the stand-in coach during Team India's limited-overs tour of Sri Lanka, when Virat Kohli-led Test side was in United Kingdom early this year.