Dravid to be India's batting consultant for overseas tours
Former captain Rahul Dravid has been appointed India's batting consultant for overseas tours, BCCI announced on Tuesday. Dravid would take up the role alongside his current position of coach of India 'A' and U-19 teams, for which he was recently given a two-year extension. Dravid has been appointed alongside Ravi Shastri as head coach and Zaheer Khan as bowling coach.
Former captain Ravi Shastri has been appointed the new head coach of the Indian men's cricket team till the 2019 World Cup, as first reported on India Today. Shastri's first assignment will be a full-fledged tour of Sri Lanka featuring three Tests, five ODIs and a one-off T20 International starting July 26.  WATCH FULL VIDEOMeanwhile, Zaheer Khan has been named bowling coach while Rahul Dravid will be batting coach for overseas tours.BCCI said that the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman, who conducted the interviews, recommended these appointments in the "best interest" of Indian cricket.The term of the appointments will be till the World Cup 2019."Shastri has been the team director in the past, and brings with him a wealth of experience, both as player and as coach," said board's acting Secretary Amitabh Choudhary."Zaheer is a contemporary cricketer who assumed the mentoring role to a young fast bowling unit even during his playing days with India. His inputs and wisdom will be of immense value to our young fast bowlers, who have shown tremendous potential in the last couple of years. And, as the Indian team is to play plenty of Test cricket overseas in the next two years, Rahul Dravid's expertise as batting consultant will be immensely helpful for youngsters," he added. The CAC had interviewed five candidates on Monday - Virender Sehwag, Tom Moody, Richard Pybus, Lalchand Rajput and Shastri - before finalising on the latter.Shastri was involved in a three-way race along with Virender Sehwag and Tom Moody as the advisory committee met in Mumbai to select the new coach.Shastri was overlooked last year as the CAC went ahead and picked Anil Kumble for a one-year term. Many had felt Shastri was the hot favourite to replace Duncan Fletcher  as the full-time coach until Kumble threw his hat in the ring.Last year, Shastri had said he was disappointed after missing out on the coaching job because the team had done "wonderfully well" under him.As team director from 2014 to 2016, Shastri had a good run as India won an ODI series against England, reached the semi-finals of the 2015 World Cup and 2016 World T20, won a T20I series in Australia and clinched the Asia Cup.But he soon made way for former captain Anil Kumble, who was selected coach by the CAC in 2016. Shastri was also one of the applicants last year but he was overlooked despite his good run.Kumble's one-year tenure came to a controversial end when he resigned following differences with skipper Virat Kohli.In a statement hours after tendering his resignation, Kumble said he was told by the Indian board that Kohli was not satisfied with his 'style of coaching'.ZAHEER KHAN NAMED BOWLING COACHFormer India pacer Zaheer has been named bowling coach. The 38-year-old has played 92 Tests and picked up 311 wickets and has 282 scalps to his name from 200 ODIs -- and as captain of the Delhi Daredevils has nurtured several talented young players.Zaheer is well respected in the Indian cricket fraternuity and has played with current members MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin.RAHUL DRAVID BATTING COACH FOR OVERSEAS TOURSBCCI appointed Dravid as the batting coach for overseas tours. He is also coach of India's A and U-19 teams. Known as the 'The Wall' fo his solid defecne, Dravid accumulated 13288 runs in 164 Tests and 10889 runs in 344 ODIs.