Team India's Assistant Coach In Trouble After World Cup Exit

Team India getting knocked out of the World Cup 2019 after an 18-run loss to New Zealand in a rain-affected semi-final at Old Trafford in Manchester on Wednesday has left fans and cricket fraternity shocked. To this unexpected news, fans and critics questioned the team and its management's approach in a crunch situation.

According to NDTV reports, India's coaching staff, led by Ravi Shastri is currently 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 he should have done a better job.

The general belief is that the bowling unit under coach Bharat Arun did exceptionally well in the last year and a half while the team's fielding under R Sridhar has also improved a lot. But the same cannot be said of the batting unit and the fact that India failed to find a fixed number four batsman for the showpiece event hasn't gone down well with the BCCI, NDTV further reported.

Further concerning on this topic, while speaking to IANS, a senior BCCI official said that the constant chopping and changing in the middle-order was something that had hurt the Indian team not just in the World Cup, but over the last couple of seasons. Even, Bangar was not able to find a solution is something that reflects poorly on the coach. In fact, Bangar saying that all-rounder Vijay Shankar was fit just before he was ruled out has also been taken note of.

"It was a constant struggle. 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 official said.

"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 added.

"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.

Interestingly, team manager Sunil Subramaniam's conduct during the showpiece event has also left some of the board officials stunned.

"Anyone who has interacted with the team manager has been left utterly disappointed with his conduct and approach. Obtaining tickets and passes for his friends seemed to be his primary concern and the positioning of his hat seemed to be the secondary one," the official said.

Media reports state that while the Committee of Administrators (CoA) have given the support staff 45 more days to coach the Indian players, some of the members could be asked some serious questions when the next appointment is undertaken by the BCCI.