India Legend Likely To Spearhead Team's Preparations In Gautam Gambhir's Absence: Report

June 16,2025
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Gautam Gambhir is in India due to personal reasons. Photo: BCCI

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Shubman Gill-led Team India is preparing for the five-match Test series against England, starting June 20. Team India is facing India A in an intra-squad game. The match started on June 13 and will end on Sunday (June 15). India are without the services of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli and it will be a big challenge for visitors to excel in the English conditions. Both India legends recently retired from Test cricket.
India are also without their head coach, Gautam Gambhir. He travelled to England with the team but returned home due to personal reasons. In his absence, VVS Laxman is likely to spearhead India's preparations for the first Test match.
Revsportz has reported that the India legend will likely spearhead India's preparations until Gambhir returns to England. Laxman has often worked with Team India since 2022.
He took over the team's charge on a stand-in basis when Rahul Dravid and his coaching staff took a rest. In 2024, Laxman travelled to South Africa with the Suryakumar Yadav-led T20I team for the five-match series.
He is the present chief of the BCCI Centre of Excellence. Back in 2021, he wanted to become the head coach of Team India but the board wanted Rahul Dravid. Laxman was appointed the chief of the National Cricket Academy (NCA).
Laxman looked the front-runner to replace Dravid as India's head coach after the end of his stint in 2024. But he didn't apply for the job. He decided to continue as the chief of the BCCI Centre of Excellence.
He is in England with the India U-19 cricket team, which is scheduled to take on the home team in 5 Youth ODIs and 2 Youth Test matches. The squad includes IPL sensations, Vaibhav Suryavanshi and Ayush Mhatre. Vaibhav played for Rajasthan Royals while Ayush was part of Chennai Super Kings.
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