VVS Laxman, chief of the National Cricket Academy (NCA), is reportedly going to be the head coach of the Indian team that will travel to South Africa next month for 4 T20Is. He will step in as the incumbent national coach, Gautam Gambhir, will be Australia-bound for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
India will play four Twenty20 Internationals in Durban, Gqeberha, Centurion, and Johannesburg on November 8, 10, 13, and 15 respectively. The team will depart around November 3. The Indian team for the BGT leaves on November 10-11.
As per Cricbuzz, the decision was confirmed to them by a top Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) official. The four-match series was not originally scheduled. It was recently arranged by the BCCI and Cricket South Africa (CSA).
NCA staff to assist VVS Laxman in coaching duties on tour of South Africa
VVS Laxman’s coaching staff will include personnel and other coaches from the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru, such as Sairaj Bahutule, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, and Subhadeep Ghosh. Bahutule (head coach), Kanitkar (batting coach), and Ghosh (fielding coach) were members of the India Emerging team that competed in the Asia Emerging Cup competition in Oman.
Sitanshu Kotak of Saurashtra and Mazhar Moidu of Kerala, both NCA members, have joined Ruturaj Gaikwad’s India A squad to Australia.
On October 25 (Friday), the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) named a 15-member squad, captained by Suryakumar Yadav, for the four T20Is. One advantage of the tour is that it comes before the IPL auction, so the four matches may provide insight into who the franchises will be actively pursuing.
Suryakumar Yadav, who took over as India’s full-time T20I captain following the T20 World Cup 2024 victory, has delivered perfect results thus far. He led his team to 3-0 victories in Sri Lanka and at home against Bangladesh. Suryakumar will try to record a hat-trick of series victories during the South Africa tour.
India T20I squad: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (WK), Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ramandeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Avesh Khan, Yash Dayal
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