Reports: Anil Kumble set to be appointed as Indian Cricket team's new coach

As reported by India Today, former Indian captain Anil Kumble is all set to be appointed as the new coach of Indian cricket team. The leg-spinner was a considerably late entrant into the long list of contenders for the prestigious job and the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was prodigiously impressed by his pedigree and vision to make the team do well in all three formats.

The final six members filtered down by the committee comprising of Indian cricket legends Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly were Kumble, Ravi Shastri, Lalchand Rajput, Praveen Amre, Stuart Law and Tom Moody. They all made presentations and showcased their ideology for the future, it eventually came down to two Indian candidates, Kumble and Shastri.

Sources revealed that the former Team Director of India, Ravi Shastri did not make any presentation, but instead spoke in details about his plans. On the other hand, the 45-year old Kumble made the most thorough and detailed presentation with blueprints for all three formats and thus seems to have left his compatriot behind.

He has also mentored the Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians the past and is currently the chairman of International Cricket Council's Cricket Committee.

The most important and critical two questions that were asked by the Advisory Committee to the last six finalists were (a) Why should you be given the team and (b) How will you help them win abroad?

Former chairman of BCCI's Technical Committee was both methodical and persistent about the fact that it was his era that reversed the historic Indian convention of 'winning at home and losing abroad'. It is no coincidence that he shared Indian cricket's golden period with Tendulkar, Ganguly and Laxman and this also went in his favour.

The 54-year old Shastri conferred his presentation through a video conference from Thailand and talked persistently and tediously on his 20-odd months stay with the team. While India’s Test side did moderately well under him, the limited over teams failed to live up to the expectations.

While 50-over side failed to go beyond semifinals of the 2015 World Cup, the Twenty-20 team, riding on the back of Virat Kohli’s brilliance, also reached the semis in this year’s World T20 but lost to eventual champions West Indies.

India currently have the services of Sanjay Bangar who was appointed as the stand-in coach for the tour of Zimbabwe while they come to a final decision.