Former Indian cricketer Rahul Dravid will coach Team India during the tour of Sri Lanka for the white-ball series, according to a report.
The red-ball unit of the Indian cricket team, led by Virat Kohli and coached by Ravi Shastri, will be in the UK for the World Test Championship final and a Test series against England when the limited-overs squad flies to Sri Lanks in July.
In the absence of head coach Shastri, Dravid, the chief of the National Cricket Academy (NCA), is likely to fulfil the role of the coach, as per Cricbuzz. The report also suggests that the coaching staff at the NCA may accompany Dravid on the assignment.
Dravid's previous coaching stints have seen him monitoring the progress of India A and India's under-19 cricket teams. He was India under-19s and India A teams' coach from 2016 to 2019. Under his tutelage, the under-19 team was runners up at the 2016 under-19 World Cup and then winners at the 2018 under-19 World Cup.
Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan, who isn’t part of the touring party to the UK, could be chosen to lead the limited-overs side.
Hardik Pandya, Prithvi Shaw, Sanju Samson, Suryakumar Yadav, Manish Pandey, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Yuzvendra Chahal are a few names who have been ignored for the England Tests but are likely to travel to Sri Lanka.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had earlier announced that the Indian team will play a three-match ODI and T20I series against Sri Lanka.
"We have planned a white ball series for the senior men's team during the month of July where they will play T20 Internationals and ODIs in Sri Lanka.” BCCI president Sourav Ganguly was quoted saying by the Press Trust of India (PTI).
Although the tour has been given the green signal, India’s final squad is yet to be revealed by the BCCI.
Featured photo: AFP / Ian Kington
