Abhishek Nayar.
| Photo Credit: File photo
A day after Gautam Gambhir was officially announced as India head coach, Abhishek Nayar — Gambhir’s colleague as part of the Kolkata Knight Riders’ support staff — is tipped to join Team India as the assistant coach.
Nayar is understood to be among the list of names suggested by Gambhir for various positions in the team’s support staff.
According a BCCI official, Nayar has been sounded out and preliminary discussions have been positive of him being elevated to the national team set-up. Being a close friend of India captain Rohit Sharma could also work in his favour.
For bowling coach, feelers have been sent to R. Vinay Kumar and L. Balaji. There is a school of thought in the BCCI hierarchy that to ensure continuity in the thought-process, at least one of the current coaching staff members should be retained. It will be interesting to see if Gambhir is asked to work with either Vikram Rathour (batting) or Paras Mhambrey (bowling) or T. Dilip (fielding).
Selection dilemma
With time running out for the selection meeting for the limited overs’ tour to Sri Lanka , starting on July 27, the BCCI is yet to announce a new selector. It’s been three weeks since the Cricket Advisory Committee interviewed candidates for the selector’s post.
Interestingly, the BCCI has still not made the outgoing selector’s name public. While it is widely believed that Salil Ankola will make way for an incoming selector from the north zone, chief selector Ajit Agarkar has served out his 12-month tenure at the end of the T20 World Cup.
