A guide to Indian team's coaching and support staff
The men in-charge of Indian cricket team
Gone are the days when a team had just one head coach. Nowadays, we see teams having over half-a-dozen of coaching and support staffs travelling with them.
The teams cannot be blamed for it as there are few factors that force them to hire more people as a part of support staff.
With the advent of technology, video analysts are considered as one of a vital cog for the data they bring to the table. In 2017, fitness is one of the main criteria for a player to represent his country at the International level as well.
The last few days have been very confusing for all the Indian cricket fans. The BCCI announced the new head coach along with a batting and bowling coaches. A few days later, their role was changed to consultants for India's overseas tours before they were eventually dumped out from the scheme of things.
In a bid to clarify things, let us take a look at all the coaching and support staff of the Indian cricket team.
Extra cover: Ravi Shastri to get Rs 7.5 crore annually; Wants Sachin Tendulkar as the batting consultant for overseas tours
Head coach: Ravi Shastri
Ravi Shastri was appointed as the head coach of the Indian cricket team last week. He will take over the role from Anil Kumble, who stepped down from the role a few days before his contract ended.
Shastri was also the interim coach of the Indian team in 2007 and served as the team director from 2014-2016.
Assistant coach: Sanjay Bangar
Sanjay Bangar has been with the Indian cricket team as the batting coach since India's tour of England in 2014 and he was given a promotion as the assistant coach by the BCCI yesterday (18 July 2017).
He also worked with India A, Mumbai Ranji team and Kings XI Punjab as a coach and Kochi Tuskers Kerala as a batting coach.
Also read: All you need to know about Sanjay Bangar
Bowling coach: Bharat Arun
After being a part of Ravi Shastri's plans, Bharat Arun was appointed as the bowling coach by the BCCI yesterday (18 July 2017). He was first appointed as the bowling coach for India midway through the tour of England in 2014 and was relieved of his job before he was appointed again for a second stint.
Arun was the coach of the victorious India's under-19 World Cup in 2012 and coached Tamil Nadu, Bengal in the Indian domestic circuit.
He was also the bowling coach of Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 2017 IPL and VB Thiruvallur Veerans in the 2017 TNPL but had to give the roles after he was appointed as the bowling coach of Indian team.
Fielding coach: R Sridhar
R Sridhar is set to continue as the fielding coach of the Indian team. He was first appointed as the fielding coach during the England tour in 2014 and held his job till the end of 2016 World T20. He was re-appointed for the same role just before the start of the series against New Zealand last year.
He was the assistant coach of the Indian under-19 team for the 2014 World Cup and also was the fielding coach of Kings XI Punjab apart from coaching Andhra in the Indian domestic circuit.
Physio: Patrick Farhart
Patrick Farhart has been with the Indian team since 2015 as the Physiotherapist. The Aussie international has done a remarkable job in his tenure with the Indian team so far.
He was with the Australian cricket team, Hampshire, New South Wales and Sydney Sixers. He has also worked with the Australian rugby team and the Socceroos (Aussie Football team)
Trainer: Shankar Basu
Shankar Basu is the fitness trainer of the Indian team and he got the nod as skipper Virat Kohli was very stubborn of having him on board in 2015 after working with him at Royal Challengers Bangalore during the IPL.
Since then, he has done a fantastic job with the Men in Blue before he resigned from his post in 2016. He was later re-appointed by the BCCI before the 2017 Champions Trophy and he is set to continue as the trainer until the 2019 World Cup.
Extra cover: Team India’s strength and conditioning coach talks about Virat Kohli’s transformation into a phenomenal athlete
He is also the man behind the improvement in the fitness of several top performing athletes, including Virat Kohli, R Ashwin, Dipika Pallikal Karthik and Dinesh Karthik.
Assistant trainer: Raghu Srinivasan
Raghu Srinivasan has been with the Indian team since 2011 when India toured Australia. He is the assistant trainer and he can be spotted in India's net sessions giving throw downs to the Indian batsmen.
Apart from these names, the Indian team also has Ashish Tuli as the video Analyst and Rajiv Kumar and Arun Kanade as the masseurs. They will also have a team manager and BCCI have put up an advertisement for the role and are hopeful of finding one before the start of Sri Lanka series.