VVS Laxman will be India’s coach for South Africa tour which is set to begin next month. He will step into the position while the regular head coach Gautam Gambhir will be accompanying the India squad for the Border Gavaskar Trophy.
Sairaj Bahutule, Hrishikesh Kanitkar and Subhadep Ghosh will be part of Laxman’s coaching staff for the four-match T20I series who were part of the India emerging side that took the Asia emerging cup tournament in Oman.
Sitanshu Kotak of Saurashtra and Mazhar Moidu of Kerala, both associated with the NCA, have accompanied the Ruturaj Gaikwad-led India A team to Australia.
“Next month, there’s a needless four-match T20 series in South Africa before the tour to Australia. There will also be an ‘A’ team touring Australia next month, so effectively about 50 to 60 players will not be available for their State teams in the premier national tournament, the Ranji Trophy,” said former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar.
One upside for the tour, coming as it does ahead of the IPL auction, the four matches could indicate who will be hotly pursued by the franchises.
India will play four T20 internationals in Durban, Gqeberha, Centurion and Johannesburg on November 08, 10, 13 and 15 respectively. The team will be departing around November 03.
India Squad for South Africa T20Is: 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.
