India vs Zimbabwe 2016 tour: The Indian squad will tour Zimbabwe without a coach
The Indian Team for the tour of Zimbabwe has been announced today by the Board of Control for Cricket in India. The 16-member squad has many new faces, and many senior players have been rested. The team will, however, be led by regular limited overs captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Also read: Final Indian squad for the tour of Zimbabwe announced
However, the team will travel to Zimbabwe without any head coach. The BCCI is yet to zero in on any suitable candidate for this post and thus, they have decided to finally put out an advertisement for this post. The deadline for the applicant is June 19.
The newly-appointed BCCI president Anurag Thakur was non-committal about the future of the present support staff and also about Ravi Shastri. When queried about the delay in the appointment of a coach, Thakur said that they want to increase the pool size to get the best candidate.
“If you have to go for the best you can’t go with limited choices. So we are keeping it open. We want people who are interested in coming. They can', Thakur said.
Even as the names of the players have been announced today, Thakur informed that the support staff contingent would be announced after May 29.
The BCCI had earlier formed a cricket advisory committee which included Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, and Saurav Ganguly.
Ganguly who is also the president of the Cricket Association of Bengal informed after the BCCI's SGM that the appointment of a coach does take time.
“It will happen in the next couple of months. I am not too sure if it happens before the Zimbabwe tour because it is not too far away,” said the former Indian skipper.
The Indian team for the Zimbabwe tour has many players who have impressed in the Ranji Trophy as well as the ongoing Indian Premier League. The new inclusions in the team include Karun Nair, Mandeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jayant Yadav and Faiz Fazal.
The Zimbabwe tour will have 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is matches which will be played between June 11 and June 22.