NEW DELHI: Former captain Rahul Dravid was appointed head coach of the Indian men's cricket team on Wednesday, replacing the highly successful Ravi Shastri, the BCCI national cricket board said.

"Rahul has had an illustrious playing career and is one of the greats of the game... I am hopeful that his new stint will take Indian cricket to new heights," Sourav Ganguly, president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, said in a statement.

Dravid will take charge from the upcoming home series against New Zealand later this month. Shastri's departure had already been announced.