Former India captain Rahul Dravid is expected to be the interim head coach of the Indian team for the upcoming home series against New Zealand as BCCI scout for the next India head coach on a full-time basis.

Current head coach Ravi Shastri, bowling coach Bharat Arun and fielding coach R Sridhar’s contracts come to an end after the T20 World Cup 2021. The BCCI have thus realized that they might need more time to find and appoint a new coach and hence wants an experienced hand like Dravid at the helm as a stop-gap arrangement.

It’s learnt that a few Australian coaches expressed interest in the job, but the BCCI isn’t keen as they are focusing on an Indian for the role before they look elsewhere. Rahul Dravid was offered the full-time head coach offer by BCCI, but he refused as reports stated that he didn’t want to travel too much.

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The Indian board later approached a few more coaches but is yet to get a positive response.

The BCCI has not officially put out an advertisement for the coach but has been looking around for a candidate who could fit the bill. The Indian cricket board is first trying to find out the availability of potential candidates before putting out an advertisement.

“We wanted the candidate whom we feel is best suited for the job to agree first (to apply for the job). We don’t want a situation where we get applications but no one is seen as ideal. It will be embarrassing for the board and for the candidates too. So it’s better to find a suitable candidate first, till then Dravid can be interim coach,” a BCCI official explained their rationale to delay the advertisement.

Rahul Dravid had recently coached the Indian team which traveled to Sri Lanka for a white-ball series, where they won the ODI series, but lost the T20I series after the majority of players were isolated after Krunal Pandya had tested positive for COVID-19.

Indian team Trainer Nick Webb too will quit after the T20 World Cup.

(Indian Express inputs)