Ravi Shastri: Ravi Shastri relieved his coaching duties as India’s head coach recently. He served as the team’s head coach for almost four years. Under his guidance, India didn’t win any ICC tournament but registered some historic overseas victories in Australia and England. Recently, Shastri opened up on his toughest day as the head coach.

Ravi Shastri

In an interview with The Week, Shastri said that India getting all-out for 36 during the Australia tour last year was his toughest day as the coach. He stated that the coach is always on a firing line and there is no choice. There are no escape routes according to him and the coach has to be ready for the challenges from day one.

“The 36 all out was the lowest point. We had nine wickets in hand (according to the overnight score) and then we were bundled out for 36. All that had to be done was to score 80-odd more runs (to be in the game). We were all numb. We were in a state of shock for days. How could that have happened?” Shastri recalled the incident.

After that disaster in the first Test, Team India came back stronger in the next three Test matches. It won two of the rest three games and sealed the series by 2-1. Shastri relieved his duties as a head coach after the recent T20 World Cup. Rahul Dravid took up the charges from Shastri and is working as Team India’s head coach now.

IPL 2022: Former cricketer Harbhajan Singh has been a key player in the history of IPL. The off-spinner represented Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders in the league. He took a total of 150 wickets in 163 matches he played in the league. After participating in the league for 14 seasons, it looks like Bhajji is planning to retire from IPL. But he will be associated with the tournament in a different role.

Harbhajan Singh

Harbhajan Singh announced his retirement from international cricket long back but is continuing in the IPL. However, it is reported that he will now quit the league as well. Apparently, he will be a part of the support staff of one of the major teams and come back in a new role next season.

According to the sources, this role could be of a mentor or a bowling coach or a consultant. It seems that Bhajji always had an interest in grooming young players and thus, a high-profile franchise has made him this offer. His inclusion in the support staff will be made official once Bhajji signs the contract.

Young cricketers like Varun Chakravarthy and Venkatesh Iyer credited Bhajji for guiding them in the nets when they were representing KKR in the 2020 and 21 seasons. Bhajji’s new role may get announced ahead of the mega auction which will be held in January 2022.

Team India ODI Captaincy: Virat Kohli relieved his T20I captaincy duties after the T20 World Cup and handed over the responsibilities to Rohit Sharma. Now, it is being speculated that BCCI is planning to hand over Rohit the ODI captaincy as well. It is being speculated that Rohit will be made the white-ball captain ahead of the South Africa tour but BCCI is in no rush. Apparently, it wants to hold talks with Virat and Rohit before taking a decision.

Team India ODI Captaincy

Reportedly, Rohit and Virat will meet the selection committee today in Mumbai. The decision will be made final before the ODI squad for the South Africa tour gets announced. India will play 3 Tests and 3 ODIs in the upcoming South Africa tour. If Rohit gets the ODI captaincy, he will lead the one-day team while Kohli will lead the Test team.

Kohli’s performance was under-par in the last couple of years. Everyone is feeling that captaincy has become an additional burden for him which is indirectly affecting his performance. Thus, the board wants to keep him as the Test captain and give the rest of the formats to Rohit.

Meanwhile, it is also being heard that Kohli doesn’t want to give up the ODI captaincy anytime soon. As the upcoming ODI World Cup is scheduled to be held in 2023 in India, he wants to lead the team and try his luck in winning the tournament in home conditions. Anyway, we have to wait for a few more days for the captaincy suspense to end.