The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had invited applications for the post of Head Coach of team India on May 25 as the tenure of current coach Anil Kumble is coming to an end. Following the request, many veteran cricketers from across the world showed their interests towards this prestigious job and sent their applications to the Indian cricket board. The name of the applicants includes, Virender Sehwag, Lalchand Rajput, Dodda Ganesh and Tom Moody. Interestingly, current coach Anil Kumble too had applied for the job.
Former Australian pacer Craig McDermott, who was was the full-time bowling coach for Australia from the 2013-14 Ashes series to last year’s World T20, also applied for the post but he won’t be called for the interview as his application was received after the last date of applying i.e May 31, 2017.
The Indian cricket team had a great stint with Kumble as a head coach. Virat Kohli & Co. won all the 3 test series against New Zealand, Australia, Bangladesh and England during 2016-2017. They also won the ODI series against New Zealand and England and owned the 3-match T2o series as well against England.
But now, the time has come, when Anil Kumble’s contract is coming to an end and a new coach will be nominated to serve team India. But we think that Virender Sehwag is next best-suited coach to serve Team India and here are the points to justify his appointment.
Virender Sehwag’s Records
He is one of the most successful openers the Indian cricket team ever witnessed. Be it Sachin Tendulkar or Gautam Gambhir, when he came to open the innings, the bowler, deployed to deliver the first ball, surely had prayed to the God and asked,”No four in the first ball at least”. Sehwag’s monstrous batting style remained same through out his career irrespective of the format be it ODI, Test or T20s. He started his ODI career in the year 1999 against Pakistan and interestingly in 2013, his last one-day game was also against the arch-rivals. Currently, he is an active commentator, mentor and coach of Kings XI Punjab in the IPL, and the one of the wittiest Twitterati of the recent times
After playing 104 tests, 251 ODIs, 19 T20Is and scoring 17,253 runs on the international platform, Virender Sehwag bids adieu to all forms of cricket on 20 October 2015.
Interaction with the current Indian Players
Virender Sehwag is one of those cricketers who knows most of the players currently playing for the Indian team. He had shared the dressing room with the players like Virat Kohli, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Ashish Nehra, Ajinkya Rahane, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rohit Sharma and with Shikhar Dhawan while playing for Delhi Daredevils in the initial seasons of the Indian Premier League. Since it has been only two years he retired, Sehwag has also been following the team very keenly in the recent times and was also present in most of the match venues. His ability to quickly gel up with players, building a good rapport with them using his witty comments is a solid prove that he can be a good mentor/coach of the team. Because coach’s prime job is to understand the players, act on their issues and make them comfortable ahead of the match.
Always stand by skipper Virat Kohli
Following a poor show in the recently concluded Indian Premier League, Virat Kohli is back in the form after he played the captain’s knock of 81 to help team India registered a mammoth victory over Pakistan. All the countrymen are now praising him for the way he build his innings in the most important battle against the arch-rivals. But, when he was going through rough patch Virender Sehwag is the one who always had a belief that the Indian skipper has the potential and he knows how to handle this situation.
Recently, Virat Kohli’s team Royal Challengers Bangalore gave their worst performance ever in the IPL season 10. Despite having a fantastic home season, Kohli couldn’t do that well in this year’s cash-rich tournament. That was the time when Viru Paji backed captain fearless and said:
“It (bad patch) happens with every player. Even if you look at the great Sachin Tendulkar, he hasn’t played the same (way) every year. Even your (media) questions keep changing time to time. When time changes, form also changes. The hallmark of a good player is who can come out of bad form and Virat knows very well how to come back into good form.”
What else a captain needs now? The Viru-Kohli pair as a coach and captain would definitely be a lethal one for the opponents.
How do to deal with MSD?
Well, it’s a well-known fact that there was a time when Mahendra Singh Dhoni didn’t want Sehwag to be in the team. Dhoni’s point was, he wanted fitter players in the team who could field better and stop opponent’s run flow. But somewhere this Mahi-Viru thing turned into a heated controversy and what happened next is history.
But now, the time has changed a lot. What actually happened between Virender Sehwag and Mahendra Singh Dhoni is past now and both the players have moved ahead of that. Recently, Dhoni visited the Sehwag International School and gave some precious wicket-keeping tips to a young bunch of talents.
Later, Sehwag thanked Dhoni for sparing time to spend some time with the students.
Thank you @msdhoni for encouraging all at @SehwagSchool .A day to remember for everyone who was present for the rest of their lives. pic.twitter.com/iZt79RZThd
— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) February 3, 2017
The support from Team India
Well, the news is all around that Viru Paji may take over the position of the head coach and replace Anil Kumble. And now, the Indian cricketers have also given their reaction on Sehwag being the coach of Team India. Recently, Indian spinner R Ashwin, with his statement, hinted that Virender Sehwag could be a good coach for the team.
“He just wanted to see the ball and hit it. Thus, Sehwag used to be the least participative during such team meetings,” said Ashwin in an interview.
It seems if Sehwag gets appointed as the head coach of India, he might come out with some out of the box plan to coach the team.
This was all about how Virender Sehwag should become the coach of India. But there are more names on the list for the post. Let’s know the applicants more briefly and have a look on their cricketing careers.
Anil Kumble – INDIA
One of the most prominent and successful spinners of the Indian cricket and the third-highest wicket taker of all time in Tests (619 wickets), Anil Kumble, is currently serving the as the coach of team India. He was considered as a threat to batsmen during 1990s. Nobody could ever forget his 10 wickets haul against Pakistan in the year 1999 at Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi. Later, he also captained the Indian sides in 14 Tests.
Anil Kumble
He debuted in the year 1990 against Sri Lanka. He played his last game against Australia in 2008. In the same series, he injured the little finger of his left hand while attempting a catch off Mathew Hayden. Later on 2 November 2008, Kumble announced his retirement. In his career, he played 132 Tests and 271 ODIs and took a total of 936 wickets on the international platform.
Tom Moody – AUSTRALIA
Former Australia cricketer is also on of the applicants who applied for this esteemed post. He was a successful batsman in his domestic career while he got fame as a fast bowler when he played for the Aussies on an international platform. He has 64 first class centuries while in international level, he played 8 tests and 76 ODIs where he scored a total of 1667 runs and took 54 wickets.
Tom Moody
He debuted in the year the year 1987 with the ODI team against India and played his first Test against New Zealand in 1989. In 2001 he retired and since then he has been coaching different cricket teams. In 2005, he became the coach of Sri Lankan team. Currently, he is the coach of the Sunrisers Hyderabad franchise in the IPL.
Lalchand Rajput – INDIA
A name which is not much known for his cricketing career but caught the limelight after India lifted the first T20 World Cup in 2007 held in South Africa. Rajput was the team manager then and later in 2008, he was appointed as the coach of Mumbai Indian’s head coach in IPL 2008.
Lalchand Rajput
In 2016, he achieved a new milestone in his coaching career and became the coach of Afghanistan and replaced Pakistan’s former captain Inzamam-ul-Haq. The 55-year-old cricketer had played 2 Tests and 4 ODIs for India and scored only 69 runs. However, his domestic career was fantastic. He used to play for Bombay and was considered as on of the best openers after Sunil Gavaskar.
Dodda Ganesh – India
Dodda Ganesh
A name which is not much heard but contributed to the Indian cricket team in 1997 with his balling skills. Dodda Ganesh played 4 Tests and 1 ODI for India and took a total of 6 wickets (5+1). He had a small stint in Indian cricket and later, he tried his politics as he joined Janata Dal (Secular) led by former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda. He also became the coach of the Goa Ranji team in 2012-13.
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