With international cricket on pause for the Indian team after the ICC Champions Trophy, players are heading back to their Indian Premier League teams for the next 2 months. But head coach Gautam Gambhir wants to get started sooner. He’s planning to join the India ‘A’ team before the senior team’s England tour in June. Word is, Gambhir will be the first Team India head coach to travel with the A team for an overseas trip.
In recent years, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has been using National Cricket Academy coaches for the India A and U19 teams. Guys like Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman have been the go-to NCA coaches for these tours. When Dravid became Team India’s head coach, Laxman and other coaches took over the India A and U19 teams.
Gambhir, though, wants to mix things up and has already told the board about his plans. Neither Rahul Dravid nor Ravi Shastri went with the India A team when they were head coaches of the senior team. So, this is something new for Gambhir.
According to the Times of India, it’s not clear if Gambhir will just be watching or if he’ll be coaching the India A team in England. Since coming back from Australia, where India didn’t do so well, Gambhir is eager to help the red-ball team improve. He thinks it’s important to really check out the talent available.
Gambhir has been talking with the BCCI since he got back from Australia. He wants to go with the India ‘A’ team to get a better look at the backup players, a BCCI source told the paper. After India won the Champions Trophy because Gambhir pushed for certain wildcard players, expect him to be more assertive in the future.
Gambhir also thinks the board isn’t doing enough India ‘A’ tours and wants more of them.
One big thing is getting India ‘A’ tours going again. There haven’t been many ‘A’ series since Dravid left NCA, and most of those were just warm-up tours for bigger series. Gambhir also believes that we need more ‘A’ tours. That’s why he wants to see what’s happening for himself, the source said.
