Revealed: Why VVS Laxman will coach India T20I squad for SA tour instead of Gautam Gambhir

VVS Laxman will be joined by his NCA staff on the upcoming tour of South Africa.

Suryakumar Yadav will be leading the Indian cricket team on a tour of South Africa which comprises four T20Is, starting on November 8.

The BCCI has named former India batter VVS Laxman the interim head coach to fly with the T20I squad to South Africa. Laxman is the chief of the BCCI’s National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru.

Laxman will be joined by his NCA coaching staff, Sairaj Bahutule (bowling coach), Hrishikesh Kanitkar (batting coach) and Subhadeep Ghosh (fielding coach), on the South Africa trip. The trio was recently with the India Emerging team at the Asia Emerging Cup tournament in Oman.

Why is VVS Laxman the head coach for the South Africa tour and not Gautam Gambhir?

Laxman is the interim coach for the T20Is in South Africa because Gambhir will fly to Australia with the test squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The T20I team will depart for South Africa on November 4 for the series that will be played from November 8 to 15, while the test squad will leave for Australia on November 10-11.

Durban, Gqeberha, Centurion, and Johannesburg will host the four T20Is on November 8, 10, 13 and 15, respectively.

VVS Laxman has previously had multiple stints as the interim coach of the T20I team when former coach Rahul Dravid used to get breaks. Recently, Laxman flew with the T20I squad to Zimbabwe as well in July before Gambhir took charge.

India’s T20I squad vs South Africa:

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

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