6 possible Indian replacements for Anil Kumble as the head coach of the Indian cricket team

#4 Sandip Patil

Sandeep Patil has served as the head coach earlier as well

Sandeep Patil is another man who is a strong contender for the post. After his retirement as a player, Patil took his first coaching stint with India A and also went on to coach the Indian team thereafter. It was then that he took up the job of coaching Kenya and did the unthinkable. He took the world by storm when he guided the minnows Kenya to an unlikely semi-final spot in the 2003-World Cup.

It seems that he loves coaching the minnows as he served his next coaching stint with Oman. He helped them to qualify for the ICC Trophy with some strong performances in the ACC Trophy. He also coached the Mumbai Champs in the unofficial Indian Cricket League but returned to the mainstream in 2009. And three years later, he was named as the Chairman of the National Selection Panel in 2012 following a coaching stint with India’s National Cricket Academy in Bangalore.

A hard-hitting middle order batsman back in his playing days, he was a real crowd puller. In 29 Tests and 45 ODIs, his batting numbers read 1588 runs and 1005 runs respectively. He had four Test centuries to his name and 16 international half-centuries in Tests and ODIs combined. Moreover, he was a handy medium pacer also as he had 24 international wickets to his name.