With the end of the Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, where India became the champions for the second time in the tournament, the coaching stint of coach Rahul Dravid has ended, and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is yet to announce the next head coach, the chief of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) VVS Laxman is doing the job for the young team.
With the senior men of the team celebrating the moment that ends the 11-year-long wait for an ICC trophy, and the 17-year wait for the second T20 Word Cup, since winning it for the very first time in the inaugural edition of the tournament, the young India players, under the captaincy of Shubman Gill are sweating hard for the competition.
VVS Laxman has done the job for the national team in the past and also was meant to replace Dravid after his tenure ends, but didn’t apply for the post at the end.
India stand-by coach VVS Laxman to pocket 50 lakhs for Zimbabwe series
Instead of Laxman, the selectors decided to go with the former India left-handed opening batter of the side, Gautam Gambhir for the role, even though is yet to be declared officially.
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The most interesting story of Laxman’s coaching guidance in the Zimbabwe series has been that the compensation of him for the five-match T20I series is such a small fraction of Dravid’s annual salary.
A few of the reports have suggested that Laxman is likely to grab around INR 50 lakh for the whole tour, which will go for around 10 days, and that’s only 4% of what Rahul Dravid used to get as an annual salary- INR 12 crore. With it being the final assignment of the former India batter, Gambhir probably will take the job from the upcoming white-ball series in Sri Lanka.
India didn’t have a sweet time during the first of the five-match T20I series, under the leadership of Gill, who winning the toss opted to bowl first on a surface that was expected to get slow towards the back end of the innings.
The Zimbabwe batters made a great start in the innings, with a boundary on the very first ball of the innings, before losing wickets at regular intervals. The number three batter of the line-up Brian Bennett notched up 22 runs in 15 balls, with the help of five boundaries, before finding themselves at 90/9.
The last-wicket partnership of 25 unbeaten runs proved to be quite vital for the side, as Clive Madane remained on 29*, while the leg-spinner of India Ravi Bishnoi ended with figures of 4/13 in his four overs. Washington Sundar too had a great day with the ball thanks to his 2/11 in four overs.
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The two-time champions didn’t make a great start with the bat in the chase, having lost the left-handed aggressive opening batter of the side, Abhishek Sharma, while Ruturaj Gaikwad got an outside edge. The batters of the visiting side didn’t show enough application in their batting, as the pressure kept on building on them.
Once the India captain Shubman Gill was dismissed, the hopes slowly were flattering out. Sundar stood tall for his 27 runs, while Avesh Khan did a great job with the bat for his 16 crucial runs in 12 balls, as the blue brigade were blown away for 102 runs in 19.5 overs, falling short by 13 runs, to start the series with 1-0 down.