Gambhir flies home due to family emergency with coaching staff set to take over the team sessions in his absence.
India coach Gautam Gambhir flies back home from England due to family emergency.
Head coach Gautam Gambhir will not be accompanying India’s Test team in England when the closed-door warm-up match against India A begins in Beckenham on Friday.
The group will be led by bowling coach Morne Morkel and associate coaches Sitanshu Kotak and Ryan ten Doeschate while Gambhir is away. Meanwhile, India A is led by Hrishikesh Kanitkar.
The Beckenham encounter gives the senior Indian team a chance to rehearse before they fly to Leeds for the Test series opener against England on June 20.
Gambhir had stated that the batting order would be established in the lead-up to the first Test, and his absence comes at a critical moment as the team management prepares to decide on it. At least two spots are now available due to the retirements of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, and B Sai Sudharsan and Karun Nair are vying for them.
Nair, Dhruv Jurel, and Abhimanyu Easwaran were among the runs scored by players of India’s Test team who played for India A in two unofficial Test matches against the England Lions. With 259 runs, including a double-century in the opening match in Canterbury, Nair led the series in scoring.
Easwaran scored two fifties, while Jurel scored 227 runs with three half-centuries. In his lone appearance in Northampton, KL Rahul, who was predicted to start the batting with Yashasvi Jaiswal in the Test series, scored 116 and 51.
The management of the team may also be debating between Nitish Reddy and Shardul Thakur for the position of seam-bowling all-rounder. In the two first-class matches against the Lions, Reddy took two wickets in 26.5 overs and Thakur took two wickets in 43 overs. Two players from Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj, and Prasidh Krishna are probably going to join Jasprit Bumrah in the starting lineup for the first Test as part of the speed assault.
The five-Test series marks the start of India’s new World Test Championship cycle as well as the beginning of Shubman Gill’s tenure as Test captain.