Ravi Shastri given extension but Sanjay Bangar under scanner after India's WC exit
Mumbai: India crashed out of World Cup 2019 after suffering defeat against New Zealand in a rain-affected semi-final on Wednesday. Chasing 240 to win the first semifinal, India was dismissed for 221 with three balls remaining at Old Trafford.
After India's exit from the tournament, many fans and critics censured the team and its management's approach in a crucial situation. India's coaching staff, led by Ravi Shastri, was given a 45-day extension after their contract ended with the World Cup.
However, reports suggest that assistant coach Sanjay Bangar has come under the scanner as certain sections within the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) believes that Bangar should have done a better job.
India's bowling unit under coach Bharat Arun has fared well in the last year and a half. India's fielding unit also has also improved a lot under R Sridhar. But India's batting order, especially the middle order has been struggling lately, and the fact that India failed to find a fixed number four batsman for the mega-event has not gone well with BCCI.
Speaking to IANS, a senior BCCI official stated that constant changes in the middle-order was something that hampered Team India's batting not just in the World Cup, but over the last couple of seasons. Bangar has been unable to find a fix to this problem.
"It was a constant struggle," the official said. "While we are all supportive of the players and they had a good tournament with the exception of this bad day in office (in the semi-final against New Zealand), the support staff's processes and decision-making will surely be scrutinised thoroughly prior to any decision being taken about their future.
"Also, it was pretty ordinary stuff when you had Bangar stating to the Indian media contingent that every player was available for selection when Shankar was ruled out early next morning on account of an injury sustained earlier on tour. Things have been somewhat disorganised when it comes to the assessment of performances of the support staff being made by people who were keen on having select individuals continue in their positions.
"The present administration set up including the senior employees were all at sea with cricketing decisions and at the same time were ignoring the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) - comprising of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman - completely and that's a shame," the official said.
Sources have also revealed that some of the batsmen had to seek the advice of former batting stars while they going through a poor run of form.
"Without taking names, it is well documented that a couple of current team members have spoken about how they approached some of the former India batsmen to help them erase flaws in their batting when they were having issues scoring runs," the source told IANS.
Committee of Administrators (CoA) have given the support staff 45 more days to coach the Indian players. India will next play West Indies, where many senior players are likely to be rested.
