No Gautam Gambhir: VVS Laxman likely to be India’s Head Coach in South Africa; here’s why

National Cricket Academy (NCA) chief VVS Laxman will step up as an interim head coach for the Indian cricket team in place of Gautam Gambhir for their short T20I tour to South Africa, according to reports. India will play four T20Is against the Proteas on November 8, 10, 13 and 15. The team for the South African tour will depart on November 4.

However, the squad for Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) departs on November 10-11 with the first match starting on November 22 in Perth. The South African tour wasn’t planned initially and was recently arranged. Gambhir will be busy with the group for BGT.

Along with Laxman, NCA coaches Sairaj Bahutule, Hrishikesh Kantikar and Subhadeep Ghosh will be a part of the support staff in South Africa. The trio of Bahutule (head coach), Kantikar (batting) and Ghosh (fielding) were a part of the support staff that accompanied the India A team in the Asia Emerging Cup in Oman recently. India A were ousted in the semifinals by eventual winners Afghanistan A.

Laxman had earlier served as an interim coach for India on several occasions, filling up for then-head coach Rahul Dravid. It was under Laxman’s guidance that India won 4-1 against Zimbabwe in T20Is. Prior to that, Laxman also went to Ireland on couple of occasions as India head coach.

India’s T20I squad for South Africa tour:Suryakumar Yadav (C), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (WK), Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ramandeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Avesh Khan, Yash Dayal.

India vs South Africa T20I Schedule

1st T20I - November 8 - Kingsmead, Durban

2nd T20I - November 10 - St George's Park, Gqeberha

3rd T20I - November 13 - SuperSport Park, Centurion

4th T20I - November 15 - The Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg