Former BCCI chief selector MSK Prasad believes that India’s U-19 head coach Rahul Dravid is the best option to replace Ravi Shastri in the senior team. Shastri’s tenure as India’s coach ends after the T20 World Cup, in November. 

While several names including VVS Laxman and Anil Kumble have been doing rounds as the likely replacements for Shastri, MSK Prasad is confident of seeing Rahul Dravid take over as coach. He also wants to see MS Dhoni continue as mentor of the Indian cricket team. MSD is set to mentor Virat Kohli and company in the ICC T20 World Cup that starts on October 17. 

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Ravi Shastri first took the reins of the team as coach in 2017. Earlier this month he hinted at his intentions to step down from the position. 

Dravid was the head coach for India during their limited overs tour to Sri Lanka in July. As U-19 coach, the Wall of India has guided the team to a World Cup win in 2018 and to the final in 2020. He has also coached India A teams. 

“In my heart, I had this feeling. I was challenged recently by my colleagues that definitely post Ravi bhai’s era, MS has to come into the role of a mentor and Rahul Dravid as coach. These were the discussions I had with my fellow commentators while I was doing commentary during the IPL. I had a feeling that Rahul, being the studious person that he is, will add value to Team India post Ravi bhai’s era,” MSK Prasad told Sports Tak.

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Prasad believes that the Dravid-Dhoni duo should be the way forward for Indian cricket and that would be very disappointed at anything otherwise. 

“Rahul as a coach, MS as mentor is going to be a boon for Indian cricket. Both are cool and calm customers and one person is very studious and hard-working. More importantly, the number of players that are evolving right now have been groomed by Rahul, who was India A coach also. So it is some wonderful planning that is happening. I will be very disappointed if Rahul is not going to be the coach and MS not a mentor post this management’s era,” Prasad added.