National Cricket Academy (NCA) Director of Cricket VVS Laxman is likely to act as India’s head coach for their two T20 internationals against Ireland next month. Laxman will fill in for Rahul Dravid, who will be in England preparing the Indian team for the rescheduled fifth Test from last year. (More Cricket News)
India are scheduled to play Ireland on June 26 and 28 in two T20s in Dublin. At the same time, India’s Test side will play a four-day game in Leicester from June 24 to 27. The squad will then move to Birmingham for the fifth Test from July 1-5.
Following the Test match, India will also play England in three T20s and the same number of ODIs. In all likelihood, India’s T20 warm-up games against Northamptonshire and Derbyshire will clash with the dates of the Test match at Edgbaston.
There is a possibility that Laxman might stay with the team during India’s T20 warm-up games. Laxman, a former India batter, sacrificed his hefty paycheques with IPL franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad and Bengal men’s cricket team to join NCA last year.
He also went to West Indies with the U-19 Indian team for the World Cup earlier this year overseeing the colts’ triumphant campaign. Meanwhile, the BCCI selectors are to pick two separate squads for the tours, just like the way they did in July last year.
Last year, while Dravid helmed a young T20 squad in Sri Lanka with Shikhar Dhawan as captain, the Indian Test squad captained by then captain Virat Kohli was coached by Ravi Shastri against England in the longest format.
India are leading the Test series 2-1 with the fifth game pushed back due to the COVID breach in the Indian camp last year with Shastri, then bowling coach Bharat Arun and fielding coach R Sridhar, all among the positives.
India’s Test specialists are likely to leave for England on June 15. The last time India won a Test series in England was in 2007 under Dravid’s leadership. It is also expected that the T20 squad that will travel to Ireland will also play the preceding South Africa series at home.
All the Indian players are currently busy with IPL 2022 which ends on May 29. The India vs South Africa series will be played on June 9 (Delhi), 12 (Cuttack), 14 (Visakhapatnam), 17 (Rajkot) and 19 (Bengaluru).
