India skipper Virat Kohli throws weight behind Ravi Shastri, says players share 'great camaraderie' with current head coach

Mumbai: Captain Virat Kohli on Monday said he is in favour of Ravi Shastri continuing as the head coach of the Indian cricket team despite the criticism following the semi-final ouster from the World Cup. The current support staff comprising incumbent head coach Ravi Shastri, bowling coach Bharat Arun, batting coach Sanjay Bangar and fielding coach R Sridhar were given a 45-day extension following the World Cup, covering the West Indies tour from 3 August to 3 September. [caption id=“attachment_5260771” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File picture of Ravi Shastri (L) and Virat Kohli (R). Reuters[/caption] “Well, the CAC (Cricket Advisory Committee headed by Kapil Dev) has not contacted me on this. But all of us share a great camaraderie with Ravi bhai and would definitely be very happy (to have him around),” Kohli told reporters when asked for his opinion on the appointment of chief coach. “But as I had said, it’s on the CAC to decide (how to go about it).” They may have failed to win the T20 World Cup in 2016 and the ODI World Cup in 2015 and 2019, but the Shastri-Kohli duo helped India climb the top of the Test rankings with a historic series triumph in Australia. Shastri was the team director till June 2016 until India lost in the World T20 semi-finals before being reappointed as head coach in 2017 after Anil Kumble stepped down following his differences with Kohli. The interviews of applicants for India’s head coach are likely to take place on 13 August and/or 14 August. The deadline for filing the applications for the head coach and support staff is 30 July. The Committee of Administrators (CoA) running Indian cricket has tasked the Kapil Dev-led ad-hoc committee to pick the next national coach. The ad-hoc body comprising former India captain Kapil, Anshuman Gaekwad and former women’s captain Shantha Rangaswamy had earlier appointed WV Raman as the women’s team coach in December. Back then, the CoA was a two-member panel comprising chairman Vinod Rai and former India women’s captain Diana Edulji, who had called the women’s coach selection process unconstitutional. She had asserted that only the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) was empowered to do so. But with serious doubts over the future of CAC comprising Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman the CoA thought it was prudent to hand the responsibility to the ad-hoc panel.