Pic Credit: The Week
Indian team is all set to tour Zimbabwe for three match ODI series against Zimbabwe which is commencing on 18 th of August and on this tour young Indian team will be without their regular coach Rahul Dravid.
BCCI secretary Jay Shah on Friday(August 12) confirmed the unavailability of Rahul Dravid for Zimbabwe tour as he will be in UAE with T20I team for the preparation of Asia Cup 2022 and in his absence VVS Laxman will be the head coach of Indian team on Zimbabwe tour.
This will not be the first time that VVS Laxman will coach Team India, this year itself he had been appointed as head coach of Indian team for Ireland tour as Dravid was with test team in England and young Indian team had performed exceptionally well on that tour.
Jay Shah told to PTI, “Yes, VVS Laxman will be in charge of the Indian team in Zimbabwe for three match ODI series. It’s not like Rahul Dravid is taking a break. The ODI series in Zimbabwe finishes on August 22 and Dravid along with Indian team will reach in the UAE on August 23. Since there is little gap between the two events, Laxman will be in charge of the Indian squad in Zimbabwe,”
He added, “Since only KL and Hooda are there with the ODI squad in Zimbabwe, it was only logical that the head coach would be with the T20I squad.”
Zimbabwe recently had played some good cricket against Bangladesh, and they had beaten them in ODI as well as T20s. Although, they will be without the services of their key players still they can show a good fight against the young Indian team and it will be interesting to see the response of men in blue under new coach VVS Laxman.
India’s squad for 3 ODIs: KL Rahul (Captain) Shikhar Dhawan (vice-captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Sanju Samson (wicket-keeper), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Avesh Khan, Prasidh Krishna, Mohd Siraj, Deepak Chahar.
Zimbabwe ODI squad: Regis Chakabva (c), Tanaka Chivanga, Bradley Evans, Luke Jongwe, Ryan Burl, Innocent Kaia, Kaitano Takudzwanashe, Clive Madande, Wesley Madhevere, Tadiwanashe Marumani, John Masara, Tony Munyonga, Richard Ngarava, Victor Nyauchi, Sikandar Raza, Milton Shumba and Donald Tiripano
