The Director of Cricket at the National Cricket Academy, VVS Laxman, is likely to act as a stand-in coach for the Indian team for their upcoming short tour of Ireland, a report in ESPNcricinfo revealed.
Regular full-time coach, Rahul Dravid, may head over to England to help prepare for the fifth and final Test of the 2021 series in Manchester which was rescheduled after issues regarding covid-19.
Dravid will be missing India’s 5-match T20I series at home against South Africa but he will rejoin the team when they play a 4-day warmup game in Leicester from June 24-27.
In Dravid’s stead, Laxman will fill in for the Ireland series which includes two T20Is on June 26 and 28. The former batter has prior coaching experience with Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL and for Bengal (batting consultant) at the domestic level.
India likely to opt for separate squads for upcoming tours
Since there is only a week’s gap between the conclusion of the South Africa T20I series at home and the start of the Ireland tour, the BCCI may think of sending a separate squad altogether.
They had done it in 2021 when India traveled under Dravid for a white-ball tour of Sri Lanka while Ravi Shastri and the Test team headed over to England for the 5-match Test series.
The ones who have stood out in the current IPL 2022 season are likely to get a call. This may include Dinesh Karthik, Arshdeep Singh, Rahul Tripathi, and several others.