Port of Spain: Indian batting coach Sanjay Bangar on Sunday revealed that experienced batsmen Yuvraj Singh and former skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni are mentoring the side after coach Anil Kumble stepped down from his post just before the West Indies tour.
Kumble stepped down earlier this week after revealing that his relations with skipper Virat Kohli had soured beyond repair. Meanwhile, the Indian team headed to the West Indies to play five One Day International (ODI) and a Twenty20 International (T20I) matches without a full-time coach.
“When you have so many experienced players in the side in form of Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli ... they are doing a lot of things behind the scene,” Bangar said.
“They are helping, guiding the players ... it’s not only the coaching staff but they are mentoring the team. It’s the wealth of ideas which is of benefit through interactions,” he added.
Yuvraj (302), Dhoni (292) and Kohli (185) have experience of a total 779 ODI matches among them.
Bangar also mentioned that losing the coach just before the tour has not affected the team in any way. “We are all professionals and this is part and parcel of the game ... the boys have taken it professionally and it has not affected the camp,” Bangar said.
Former Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCC) President Anurag Thakur has meanwhile called for skipper Virat Kohli being allowed full control over the Indian team.
Following Kumble’s departure, Vinod Rai, head of the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA), and several former players have come out in support of the legendary leg-spinner.
Thakur, however, defended Kohli and harked back to 2006-07 and the controversy between former India captain Sourav Ganguly and then coach Greg Chappell as an example.
“Why is extra pressure being created on Virat? It is not right to target Virat over these issues because this is not the first time such a thing has happened. Greg Chappell was also removed earlier.
“It has always been the case that the captain is more important than the coach. The captain’s opinion is given importance even in selection matters because ultimately it is he who has to make the team perform,” Thakur said.
“Right now, there is no better batsman than Virat in Indian cricket. If we have to maintain the current standards of the Indian team over the next 10 years, and even improve our performance levels, then we have to depend on Virat,” he added.
Thakur, who was forced to step down as BCCI chief following the implementation of the recommendations of the Supreme Court-appointed Justice R.M. Lodha committee, also took a dig at the present dispensation over the issue.
Observing that such controversies never took place during his stint with the board, the current head of the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) alleged that the present BCCI management has “mishandled” the entire affair.
“As long as I was at the head of the BCCI, there were no controversies of this nature. We had conducted all our appointments in a transparent manner. The people running the BCCI at present should be asked why these things come into the public domain,” Thakur said.
“My opinion is totally clear in this matter. Virat should be the boss of the team. He must be the boss, he is the boss. He is the captain of the team and that is why he should be the boss,” he asserted.
