KOLKATA: Former great Kapil Dev, who is heading of the three-member Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) that will appoint the next head coach agreed with his colleague Shantha Rangaswamy that India skipper Virat Kohli’s opinion ‘needs to be respected’.

The World Cup-winning former India captain however assured that his panel will do their job to the best of their ability.

Kohli during his press conference earlier in the week didn’t hide that he would love to see current head coach Ravi Shastri get another term.

“That’s his [Kohli] opinion we have to respect everybody’s opinion,” Kapil told reporters here on Thursday.

Before leaving for the West Indies tour, Kohli had already made it clear that they share a great camaraderie with Shastri as he backed him to continue till the 2020 Twenty20 World Cup.

This time the CAC comprising Kapil, Anushuman Gaekwad and Shantha Rangaswamy will select the head coach with application deadline already ending on Tuesday. The incumbent Shastri gets an automatic entry in the selection process.

Before the CAC meets to interview the applicants there are also reports that Shastri is set for an extension as all eyes would be on the Kapil Dev-led committee.

“It’s not tough. You just do your job to the best of your ability,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2019