VVS Laxman Appointed Head Coach For India's Sojourn In South Africa

VVS Laxman has been chosen as the head coach of India for its short short white-ball tour of South Africa. Laxman will replace Gautam Gambhir, the incumbent national coach, who will fly to Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

This was communicated by the Indian Cricket Board on Monday. The four-match series wasn't scheduled initially but was recently planned by the Indian Cricket Board and Cricket South Africa.

India will play four Twenty20 Internationals on November 8 at Durban, November 10 at Gqeberha, November 13 at Centurion, and November 15 at Johannesburg. The Indian team may leave around November 4, and the squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy will depart from November 10-11.

Laxman will be assisted by NCA of Bengaluru staff: head coach Sairaj Bahutule, batting coach Hrishikesh Kanitkar, and fielding coach Subhadeep Ghosh. All three were part of India Emerging, which recently participated in the Asia Emerging Cup held in Oman. Sitanshu Kotak of Saurashtra and Mazhar Moidu of Kerala are assisting the India A side led by Ruturaj Gaikwad, who is currently campaigning in Australia and has already been sent to the National Cricket Academy.

Indian Cricket Board has made a 15-man list of players for the four T20Is headed by Suryakumar Yadav on October 25. The South Africa tour, scheduled during India's domestic season, has always been criticised. Former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar expressed his concerns over the issue in Sportstar, saying, "There is a completely avoidable four-match T20 series in South Africa next month before the tour to Australia. There would also be an 'A' team touring Australia next month, so effectively around 50 to 60 players will not be able to play for their State teams in the top national tournament that is the Ranji Trophy."

This means the tour comes just before the Indian T20 League auction, where a performance might attract franchises to retain or buy.

T20I Team:

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