"He'll have more respect in dressing room" - Virat Kohli's childhood coach prefers MS Dhoni over Gautam Gambhir as India coach

The BCCI will be appointing a new head coach for Team India soon. Rahul Dravid's tenure as the head coach will end next month after the conclusion of the forthcoming T20 World Cup, scheduled to be played from June 1 to 29.

The former India captain had the chance to extend his contract but he has decided to step down from the post in order to spend time with his family, according to reports. The BCCI recently invited applications from the candidates and the deadline for it was May 27. The board will now shortlist the candidates and will interview them before appointing the new head coach.

As of now, there is little clarity over who will replace Dravid. Several high-profile candidates have been linked with the job such as Stephen Fleming, Mahela Jayawardene as well as Gautam Gambhir. The likes of Ricky Ponting and Justin Langer were linked with the post as well but BCCI secretary Jay Shah recently quashed those rumors.

Rajkumar Sharma prefers MS Dhoni:

According to several reports, the BCCI is keen to have Gautam Gambhir as the next head coach of Team India. While Gambhir has not coached any national or state team as of now, the board prefers him to replace Dravid as the next coach. 

However, Virat Kohli's childhood coach has said he would prefer form India skipper MS Dhoni as the new coach of Team India. While Dhoni is still not eligible to become India's coach because he is still active as a cricketer, Sharma stated that the legendary cricketer would be a good choice.

In an interaction with India News' CRICIT PREDICTA program, Sharma said said: "First of all, it will be interesting to see which names apply for this post. I would like that whoever becomes the coach should be an Indian.

If Mahendra Singh Dhoni announces retirement, he can prove to be a good option. He (Dhoni) has played a lot of cricket and has won big tournaments. Dhoni will have more respect in the dressing room and he has played this format for a long time.

Being able to plan for the team and manage it properly, is most needed in the team because when Dhoni became the captain, there were big players in that team like Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, Gautam Gambhir, and Yuvraj Singh were present. Despite this, Dhoni handled the team brilliantly," he added.

In 2021, Dhoni had plied his trade as a mentor for Team India in the T20 World Cup but had failed to make any impact. India had a disastrous outing as they failed to progress to the semifinals after losing against Pakistan and New Zealand.