Cricket News: Vikram Rathour replaces Sanjay Bangar as batting coach

Former opener Vikram Rathour will replace Sanjay Bangar as India's new batting coach while Bharath Arun and R Sridhar were expectedly retained as bowling and fielding coaches respectively. The senior national selection committee headed by MSK Prasad on Thursday recommended three names each for all the support staff positions and the top names in each category will be appointed after the formalities with regards to Conflict of Interest declaration is complete. So the selectors finalised three candidates on order of priority for batting coach position. As per the recommendations of the selection committee, incumbent Sanjay Bangar came second while former England batsman Mark Ramprakash was third. The 50-year-old Rathour has played six Tests and seven ODIs in 1996 without much success but was a domestic heavyweight for Punjab. Till 2016, he was a senior national selector under Sandeep Patil's chairmanship. In case of Arun, there was no debate that the Indian bowling attack had become world class and it was reported by PTI last month that he would be retained as the bowling coach. India A coach Paras Mhambrey came second and former bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad was third. The most surprising aspect was Jonty Rhodes not featuring in the fielding coach's shortlist where Sridhar predictably is going to continue. India A and U-19 fielding coach Abhay Sharma came second while T Dilip came third.