The Indian cricket team will have a new head coach for the T20I series against Ireland.
After the West Indies tour, the Indian team is all set to tour Ireland for three-match T20I series. With head coach Rahul Dravid being rested as well as VVS Laxman, there's a new name that has cropped up that will take up the assignment against the Irish. (More Cricket news)
In the absence of the two, the young Indian team that will be led by Jasprit Bumrah, will see former domestic cricketer Sitanshu Kotak taking up the reign of the head coach. Kotak is currentlty the head coach of the India A team at the NCA.
As per reports, Laxman was due to take up the role as head coach for the Ireland series but has been handed to oversee a high-performance training camp near Bengaluru. The camp is up for three weeks due to which Laxman cannot make himself available for the three T20Is against Ireland starting August 18.
Kotak will be accompanied by Sairaj Bahutule as the team's bowling coach as per reports.
"Kotak and Sairaj Bahutule (bowling coach) will travel with Jasprit Bumrah & Co for the three-match T20I series (from August 18-23), as Laxman will conduct the high-performance camp from August 16 to September 5, for which youngsters like Abhishek Sharma, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Prabhsimran Singh, Sai Sudarshan, Akash Singh, Rajvardhan Hangargekar and Divyansh Saxena have been called up by the BCCI," Times of India quoted a source as saying.
Despite the tour featuring only three T20Is, there's importance attached to it. The likes of Jasprit Bumrah will be seen in action on the field alongside Ruturaj Gaikwad, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma, etc.
Sitanshu is an experienced coach that has managed the India A team for two years and the Ireland tour allows him to work with the young talent of Indian cricket who could well feature for the national side in the next T20 World Cup.