The race is on for India's new men's cricket head coach. However, one popular name, MS Dhoni, is not eligible to become the coach, once Rahul Dravid steps down after the 2024 ICC T20 World Cup. The reason? Any person applying for the position needs to be retired from playing in all formats. Despite retiring from international cricket in 2020, Dhoni is still playing in the IPL for the Chennai Super Kings, and therefore, cannot be elected as the head coach.
Dhoni, being arguably the most popular Indian cricketer, got his fair share of shouts on social media to become Team India's new coach.
However, this does not rule out Dhoni's potential involvement with the team. It is important to remember that he mentored the Indian team during the 2021 T20 World Cup, held in the UAE. That time around, India had crashed out in the group stages.
There has also been nothing to suggest that Dhoni will retire post-IPL 2024, with him still being in good form. This year, he scored at a strike rate of over 220, being dismissed only thrice in 11 innings.
Who is the favourite to become India's new head coach?
The applications for India's head coach position ended on Monday. BCCI had released a public Google form for candidates to apply. More than 3,000 applications were received.
Many of the applications were fake, with names of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Sachin Tendulkar coming up as hoax, as reported by the Indian Express.
Having recently conquered IPL for the third time, Kolkata Knight Riders mentor Gautam Gambhir has been talked about as a potential candidate. Stephen Fleming and Ricky Ponting have also seen their names in the rumour mills.
However, the BCCI are yet to disclose the final list of candidates.