Former Punjab captain Vikram Rathour, who played six Tests and seven ODIs for India, is set to become India’s batting coach. Rathour, who has been a national selector in the past, is set to replace Sanjay Bangar, the incumbent.But the current bowling coach Bharat Arun and fielding coach R Sridhar are set to retain their positions for more years.

The Indian nation team’s selection panel, headed by MSK Prasad, has shortlisted three candidates each for all the positions for which interviews have been held in the recent days. Rathour heads the list for the batting coach’s job, followed by Bangar and former England batsman Mark Ramprakash.

“In the last five years, there is definitely some amount of improvement. Looking ahead, with the Test Championship coming up and two T20 World Cups, we thought that there should be freshness in the department,” he said. “That’s the reason why we went ahead with Vikram Rathour as first choice. He was the director of HPCA , he was also the coach of Punjab Cricket Association, he was also an assistant coach with Kings XI Punjab, so he’s got enough experience behind him. Apart from that, he has been doing a lot of assignments with the National Cricket Academy so we are convinced with his skill-sets and we thought that he’d be our first preference.”