(PTI Photo)
With Rahul Dravid’s tenure as head coach concluding following India’s ICC T20 World Cup 2024 victory in the Caribbean, attention turned to the announcement of his successor for the Indian cricket team.
The young Indian squad, led by Shubman Gill, was slated to embark on a tour of Zimbabwe earlier this month for a five-match T20I series, commencing on July 6 in Harare. However, the interim Indian cricket team will undertake the tour without a permanent coach appointed yet.
Jay Shah, the Secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), has confirmed that VVS Laxman, the head of the National Cricket Academy (NCA), will accompany Team India as the interim coach for their upcoming tour of Zimbabwe. Shah also provided significant updates regarding the appointment of the next head coach of the Indian cricket team.
As the BCCI prepares to officially announce the new head coach, Shah disclosed that the successor to Rahul Dravid will join the team ahead of their upcoming limited-overs series in Sri Lanka later this month.
There is widespread speculation that former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir is likely to be appointed as Dravid’s successor, and Shah affirmed that the new head coach will be named before India embarks on their tour to Sri Lanka for limited-overs cricket. Shah mentioned that the new coach will join Team India for the Sri Lanka tour.
Furthermore, Shah revealed that the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) has conducted interviews and has shortlisted two candidates for this prestigious role. However, he did not disclose the names of the shortlisted candidates vying to take over as the head coach of Team India.
Jay Shah – New coach will join Indian cricket team from Sri Lanka tour
However, recent reports indicate that among the candidates being considered are Gautam Gambhir and WV Raman, the former coach of the Indian women’s team. The BCCI plans to finalize and announce the new head coach before the Sri Lanka tour, which includes three T20Is and three ODIs starting on July 27.
Jay Shah stated to PTI, “Both the coach and selector appointments will be confirmed soon. The Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) has conducted interviews and shortlisted two candidates. We will proceed based on their decision once they return to Mumbai. VVS Laxman will be with the team in Zimbabwe, but a new coach will join from the Sri Lanka series.”
Additionally, the BCCI Secretary commented on the contributions of Indian captains Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to India’s victory in the T20 World Cup 2024 and their subsequent retirement from T20I cricket.
Jay Shah emphasized the significance of experience as he praised Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. He expressed satisfaction that Rohit fulfilled his commitment to Indian fans by securing the trophy in Barbados, a promise he had made publicly following India’s loss to Australia in the 2023 ODI World Cup in Ahmedabad.
Shah signed off by saying, “We won all games except the final in 2023 as Australia played better. This time we worked even harder and played better to win the title. If you look at other teams, experience counts.
From Rohit to Virat, all excelled. Experience makes a lot of difference; in World Cups, you can’t experiment much also. A good player knows when to say goodbye to the game, we saw that yesterday. You look at Rohit’s strike rate, it is better than a lot of young players.”
