Rahul Dravid

Dravid will take over from Ravi Shastri, whose tenure comes to an end after the ongoing ICC Men's T20 World Cup. The decision to appoint Dravid was taken by the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), comprising of former India wicketkeeper Sulakshana Naik and former India pacer RP Singh. "It is an absolute honour to be appointed as the new Head Coach of the Indian Cricket Team and I am really looking forward to this role. Under Mr Shastri, the team has done very well, and I hope to work with the team to take this forward." said Dravid in a statement.

According to multiple media reports, BCCI has managed to convince former India captain Dravid to apply for the national team coach's post, which will fall vacant after the T20 World Cup in the UAE and Oman. The Indian team coach Shastri and support staff – which includes bowling coach Bharat Arun and fielding coach R Sridhar – end their tenures post the World Cup.

Earlier, there were reports that Dravid would be the interim coach for the upcoming home series against New Zealand. However, the BCCI official has now confirmed that "Rahul has agreed to coach the Indian team till 2023 World Cup".

According to reports, the BCCI wants to appoint an experience former India player as the chief coach even though many foreigners, including some Australians, have shown interest in taking up the job. It had earlier wanted Anil Kumble, who was forced to quit over differences with skipper Virat Kohli, to take over the role but the legendary cricketer had recused himself.

"I'm not disappointed. They are young batters; they have to keep improving and getting better. The Sri Lankan team's bowling attack is their international bowling attack. They're missing a few batsmen because of various reasons, but this is a top-quality attack. So, it's a great opportunity to reflect on these performances, reflect on these conditions, and maybe come up with some slightly better strategies," said Dravid in the post-match press conference.

The Indian team, led by Shikhar Dhawan, includes a few youngsters, some of who have played a few matches for India while some others are yet to play. As many as six Indian players are uncapped although they have the high-profile Indian Premier League (IPL) experience under their belt. While these are the last set of limited-overs internationals that India play ahead of the T20 World Cup in October-November.

"These are the only three games before the T20 World Cup. I am sure the selectors and management would have a fair idea by now as to what kind of squad they are looking for T20 World Cup…Can't read too much into it. There might be the odd spots and people might raise their hands up and knock on the doors," he said and confirmed that a couple of selectors will travel to Sri Lanka for the series scheduled next month.

So far, the former India captain has coached the India ‘A' and national Under-19 teams, and is working as the Head of Cricket at the Bengaluru-based National Cricket Academy (NCA) of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Dravid, 48, has come through apprenticeship with flying colours as a coach, a vocation he took up after his retirement, after having tried his hand at TV commentary.