According to reports, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is planning to introduce Gautam Gambhir as India’s new head coach at a press conference before the team departs for Sri Lanka on a tour which will consist of white-ball matches.
This will be Gambhir’s first assignment since taking over from Rahul Dravid. After the T20 World Cup, whose climax took place in Barbados where India triumphed against South Africa, thereby becoming champions, he became an assistant coach and then succeeded Dravid. Not long after that the BCCI appointed Gambhir as its men’s cricket coach. Consequently, Mumbai is set to host India’s Sri Lankan-bound team on July 22 with it being highly likely that a pre-departure media briefing will take place on the same day.
India starts its trip to Sri Lanka with three T20Is on July 27 before an OD series comprising three matches.
Earlier this week, Suryakumar Yadav was named captain of the T20I side while Rohit Sharma was designated leader of the ODI unit by selectors. Neither Rohit nor Kohli who both retired from T20Is after last month’s T20 World Cup were expected for the ODIs based on previous reports; however two legends were included eventually in Indian squad for fifty-over part of their sojourn.
There were speculations ahead of announcement about who among players could lead them in T20Is given that Rohit had quit playing those games.
Despite several reports that suggested otherwise such as Gambhir being supported by Surya or BCC secretary backing Hardik Pandya only for him to pick Surya as his captain for shortest format.
Unluckily enough for him, Surya did not feature in any other category especially ODIs.
While ICC Champions Trophy is scheduled between February and March next year and there are very few one-day internationals lined up for India before that, Rohit and Virat are believed to have been convinced by BCCI to make themselves available.
