BCCI retain Bangar, Sharma as assistant coaches for India's tour to West Indies

The BCCI on Saturday retained Sanjay Bangar as the batting coach while Abhay Sharma will continue as the fielding coach of the Indian cricket team for the upcoming tour of the West Indies.

The BCCI in a short press release stated that both coaches have been appointed after consulting chief coach Anil Kumble. Sources say no bowling was appointed since Kumble, India's highest-wicket taker, is in charge of the team. Both Bangar and Sharma were part of the coaching staff during the recently-concluded limited overs series in Zimbabwe where India won ODI series 3-0 and T20 series 2-1.

Interestingly, Bangar is the only member of the support staff that came on board when Ravi Shastri was made the Team Director back in 2014. Bangar's former Railways colleague Sharma was the fielding coach of the U-19 India team and also worked with the India A team before landing his maiden assignment with the senior Indian team in Zimbabwe. The former Railways wicketkeeper has also been a coach with the Himachal Pradesh team.

It has been learnt that BCCI did not want to delay appointment of assistant coaches as the camp for the West Indies tour will start in Bengaluru from June 28.

A lot of names like Praveen Amre, Vikram Rathour were doing rounds but BCCI decided to stick with tried and tested faces as they can provide new coach Kumble with necessary inputs.