India have a packed cricketing calendar this year and this means the coaching has been split for a couple of series with Centre of Excellence (CoE) head VVS Laxman is set to coach the Indian team for the Zimbabwe tour and also the Asian Games. As per the upcoming schedule for Team India, Asian Games will overlap with the opening leg of India’s home series against the West Indies. Due to this packed schedule, head coach Gautam Gambhir will remain with the senior side while Laxman takes charge of the squads travelling to Zimbabwe and Asian Games.
VVS Laxman will be assisted by a similar support staff during the Zimbabwe tour where spinner Sunil Joshi will serve as the bowling coach, while former India batter Hrishikesh Kanitkar will take over as the batting coach. The same coaching group is expected to continue for the Asian Games campaign as well. This is not the first time India have appointed an interim coach to fill in for a few assignments.
In the past, VVS Laxman has stepped in to coach the national side on multiple overseas assignments when the senior coaching staff was unavailable, while earlier heads of the National Cricket Academy also performed similar roles during scheduling clashes. This decision also reflects the increasing demands of India’s calendar, with bilateral commitments and multi-sport events running concurrently.
Indian squad for Zimbabwe Series and Asian Games
India have announced their squad for the Zimbabwe series and the biggest headline is the absence of Sanju Samson. It has not been confirmed whether he has been rested or dropped. However, the Asian Games squad which was announced a long time back has Sanju Samson part of the unit. There will be plenty of new faces in the Zimbabwe series especially when it comes to the bowling unit. Shreyas Iyer will lead the squad for both the series.
India's squad for Zimbabwe T20Is: Shreyas Iyer (captain), Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma (vice-captain), Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Shivam Dube, Suryansh Shedge, Rinku Singh, Harsh Dubey, Varun Chakravarthy, Prince Yadav, Yash Thakur, Ashok Sharma, Mayank Yadav, and Prabhsimran Singh (wicket-keeper).
India's Asian Games squad: Shreyas Iyer (captain), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma (vice-captain), Nitish Reddy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, and Jasprit Bumrah.
