Six candidates shortlisted for position of India head coach

Ravi Shastri is the frontrunner to bag the role © Getty

The Kapil Dev-led Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) will interview six shortlisted candidates - Mike Hesson, Tom Moody, Robin Singh, Lalchand Rajput, Phil Simmons and Ravi Shastri - for India's head coach's job at the BCCI headquarters on Friday.

On Monday, the BCCI informed all the six shortlisted candidates about the interview date and time. While the board has reportedly received around 2,000 applications for various coaching positions like batting, fielding and bowling coaches, only a few big names had applied for the position of head coach.

The support staff of the team (batting, bowling and fielding coaches) will be picked by chief selector MSK Prasad.

At the moment, current head coach Ravi Shastri looks to be the front-runner as he has the backing of India captain Virat Kohli. Shastri's contract expires after India's tour to the West Indies.

The three-member CAC, comprising Kapil, Anshuman Gaekwad and Shantha Rangaswamy, is likely to take Kohli's inputs on the matter seriously. With the team touring the West Indies, Shastri will be interviewed via Skype.

Amongst the other candidates, Moody, a former Australian all-rounder, has been a coach with the Sunrisers Hyderabad for the past six years. They won the title under him in 2016, and were the runners-up in 2018.

Rajput, who has coached India, India A, Afghanistan and is with Zimbabwe currently, on Monday guided the Winnipeg franchise to the title in GLT20. He coached the Indian team to the inaugural WorldT20 title in 2007, and then the CB Tri-Series triumph in Australia the next year.

Robin has been an assistant coach with the Mumbai Indians for a long time, apart from guiding Barbados Tridents in the Caribbean Premier League. He was also the fielding coach of the Indian team from 2007 to 2009.

Mike Hesson, a former New Zealand coach (2012 to 2018), was in charge of Kings XI Punjab this season, before he quit the job. Former West Indies opener Phil Simmons was the coach of Afghanistan in the 2019 World Cup in England. Moody and Hesson, in fact, are on the radar of most of the teams from the subcontinent.