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According to a report in Dainik Jagran, VVS Laxman can get the charge of India’s Test team, whereas Gambhir will continue to work with white-ball teams.
BCCI could go with different coaches in white ball and red ball if India loses the Border Gavaskar Trophy badly. (Picture Credit: PTI)
The Indian men’s cricket team will have separate coaches for Test and white-ball formats of the game in the future if Rohit Sharma-led side lose badly in the upcoming five-match Test series against Australia. According to a report in Dainik Jagran on Saturday (November 9), after suffering a 0-3 defeat at home against New Zealand, if Team India end up losing the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, then the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will consider appointing separate coaches for Tests and ODIs.
As of now, Gautam Gambhir is the head coach of Team India in all three formats of the game. The board can’t remove him in such a short span, so the option is to have separate coaches for the red and white-ball format of the game. As per the available information, NCA head VVS Laxman, who is in South Africa these days with the Indian team as head coach for the four-match T20I series, will get the charge of the Test side, and Gambhir will continue to work with the white-ball teams.
England and Pakistan in the past have worked with separate coaches for Tests and the white-ball format of the game, but India has always preferred only one head coach.
England’s experiment to have two separate coaches lasted for two years, and they appointed Test coach Brendon McCullum as the head coach of white-ball sides as well a couple of months ago, whereas Pakistan’s decision to have Gary Kristen as white-ball head coach and Jason Gillespie as Test coach could last only six months, and before playing his first ODI as Pakistan head coach, Kristen stepped down from his role.
Review meet
BCCI secretary Jay Shah, board president Roger Binny, captain Rohit Sharma, chief selector Ajit Agarkar, and head coach Gambhir participated in a review meeting on Friday after India’s shocking defeat in the home series against New Zealand. In the six-hour-long meeting, apart from discussing Gambhir’s coaching style, team management’s decision to opt for rank-turner and decision to rest Jasprit Bumrah for the third Test was discussed.
It has been reported that some of the members of India’s think tank were not on the same page with Gambhir in terms of India’s team selection for the five-match series against Australia.
