Sanjay Bangar, Bharat Arun and R Sridhar face BCCI selection panel

India batting coach Sanjay Bangar made his case for extension during an exhaustive interview with the MSK Prasad-led selection committee on Tuesday. Bowling coach Bharat Arun and fielding coach R Sridhar were also interviewed through Skype from the West Indies, where they are with the team, like Bangar.

On second day of the interview process—which stretched well into the night—16 candidates were interviewed by the national selectors to pick the support staff that will assist Ravi Shastri, who got a two-year extension last week.

Bangar, who is facing stiff competition from former India opener Vikram Rathour, has been with the team since 2014 during which India have played 50 Tests and 119 ODIs.

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South Africa’s Jonty Rhodes, a dark horse to replace Sridhar as fielding coach, was also interviewed through Skype along with Julien Fountain of England, who has been fielding coach of West Indies, Pakistan and Bangladesh. While most foreigners preferred to be interviewed on Skype, Fountain came for the interview.

While the interviews for the batting, bowling and fielding coach are over, the process to select the trainer, physios and administrative manager will be held over the next two days with the names due to be announced on Thursday.

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Former India team physio Patrick Farhart joined Delhi Capitals at the start of the month. It is learnt Mumbai Indians physio Nitin Patel, who has worked with India earlier, is a strong contender to replace him.

Trainer Shankar Basu resigned after the World Cup citing personal issues while administrative manager Sunil Subramanian was in a soup last week for misbehaving with senior officials of the Indian High Commissions in the Caribbean.