Did Harsha Bhogle Take A Dig At Ravi Shastri's Re-Appointment As Coach

Ravi Shastri being re-appointed as Team India head coach did not come as a surprise. His re-appointment was always on the cards. One of Shastri’s strongest factors was his rapport with skipper Virat Kohli. Shastri and Kohli share a strong partnership and the latter had already expressed his desire of working with Shastri again.

Shastri’s record as India coach was also impressive. Shastri helped India win 11 Tests (played 21, lost seven). Under his tenure, India have been on the top of ICC Test rankings although they lost Test series in South Africa and England. During this period, India won 44 of their 61 ODIs and made the semifinal of the 2019 World Cup. They also won 25 out of the 36 T20Is during this phase.

Also Read: Mike Hesson Congratulates Ravi Shastri On Reappointment As Head Coach, Shastri ‘Appreciates’

The Kapil Dev-led panel had shortlisted six candidates for the coach interview on Friday. Apart from Shastri, the other five were Tom Moody, Mike Hesson, Lalchand Rajput, Robin Singh and Phil Simmons. Barring Simmons, the other five gave their interviews and eventually Shastri pipped them all to retain his post.

While announcing the result, Kapil Dev insisted that Shastri was unanimously picked by the CAC members. He also said that Kohli had no say in the selection process.

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‘We had a marking system and all three of us were unanimous in our decision with mark that these were the results,” Dev told the media after the day-long coach interviews.

“Shastri’s term will be till 2021. We didn’t take any inputs from skipper Virat Kohli, if we did that then we would have to take the inputs from the entire Indian team,” the former India captain added.

But Shastri’s selection has raised many eyebrows and veteran commentator Harsha Bhogle seems to be one of them. Bhogle seems to have taken a subtle dig at the entire coach-selection process by tweeting that it was a certainty.

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“In a world that is so unpredictable, there was but one certainty. No surprise that Ravi Shastri continues as coach of the Indian team,” tweeted Harsha Bhogle.

In a world that is so unpredictable, there was but one certainty. No surprise that Ravi Shastri continues as coach of the Indian team.

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) August 16, 2019