VVS Laxman to play a new role in Indian cricket
VVS Laxman (Image Source: BCCI)
Indian men’s cricket team will be playing a two-match T20I series against Ireland on June 26 and June 28. The two matches will be taking place in Dublin. Meanwhile, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has confirmed that VVS Laxman, the current head of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) will be traveling with the team in the Ireland series.
Jay Shah, the BCCI secretary confirmed the development saying (as reported by Cricbuzz)– “He will travel with the Indian team to Dublin.” He will be acting as the coach of the team in absence of Rahul Dravid, who will be with an Indian team in England during the same time.
Notably, the arrangement is quite similar to last year. In 2021, Ravi Shastri, the then Head Coach of the Indian team was with the Test side in England while Rahul Dravid (the then head of NCA) was with another team for a white-ball series in Sri Lanka.
The Indian team under Laxman will leave for Ireland, after playing a five-match T20I series against South Africa at home. The series against the Proteas will end on June 19. Though the side for the Ireland series is yet to be picked rumors are rife that the star all-rounder Hardik Pandya might be asked to take up the captaincy responsibilities of the team traveling to Ireland. The BCCI and the national selectors are pretty impressed by the way Hardik has led the Gujarat team in the Indian T20 League 2022 and hence the thought process.
Meanwhile, speaking of South Africa’s tour of India, BCCI has announced the squad for the series. The team has a great mixture of experience and youth and will be led by KL Rahul. Indian T20 League 2022 performers have been given preference for the squad while multiformat players like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Jasprit Bumrah have been rested for the series.
Here is a look at the Indian squad for the five-match T20I series versus South Africa.
Indian Squad for the South Africa series: KL Rahul (C), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (VC)(WK), Dinesh Karthik (WK), Hardik Pandya, Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneswar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik.
