New Delhi: Former India cricketer Abhishek Nayar and former Dutch international Ryan ten Doeschate are set to accompany new India head coach Gautam Gambhir for the Men in Blue’s tour of Sri Lanka later this month, according to reports. However, there has been no official announcement regarding Gambhir’s support staff. Both Nayar and Ten Doeschate have worked with Gambhir in some of their careers at Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League and will go as assistant coaches.
Notably, fielding coach T Dilip will continue to work with the Indian team. Dilip had carved a reputation to be a positive influence in the dressing room and is very good at team bonding exercises, which is required at the top level. However, there still remains a cloud on India’s bowling coach. Although South African Morne Morkel’s name has been doing the rounds, the development is yet to gain weight.
The Indian team have already named T20I and ODI squads for the white-ball series against Sri Lanka. The Men in Blue will play three ODIs and three T20Is, starting from July 27. While Rohit Sharma continues to lead the ODI side, Suryakumar Yadav has been appointed as the T20I skipper.
Dilip and Nayar are expected to depart for Sri Lanka with the Indian team on July 22 on a charter flight. Before departure, the BCCI is expected to formally unveil Gambhir as the new head coach at BCCI headquarters in Mumbai. He will also hold a press conference with Suryakumar. However, it is yet to known when Ten Doeschate will link up with the team as he currently in USA as a part of coaching staff for the LA Knight Riders in the ongoing Major League Cricket.
Although Nayar didn’t play much international cricket, he is widely regarded as one of the stalwarts in domestic cricket having played majority of career for Mumbai. The southpaw is highly respected among the domestic cricketers and played a part in the growing talents like Venkatesh Iyer, Varun Chakaravarthy and Angkrish Raghuvanshi among notable ones.
