SL vs IND: Dilip, Mhambrey to join Dravid as coaches
Paras Mhambrey and T Dilip are set to travel with the Indian team to Sri Lanka as bowling and fielding coaches respectively. The duo will join Rahul Dravid, who is the head coach of Team India for the tour, which involves three ODIs and as many T20Is. Notably, Shikhar Dhawan will lead the second-string Indian side in Sri Lanka. Here are further details.
Dilip's inclusion comes as a surprise
Dravid and Mhambrey were already in contention to join the support staff. However, Dilip's inclusion comes as a surprise.The 39-year-old is Hyderabad's fielding coach, and has also worked with India A side. Notably, he has completed Level III coaching course. The MSK Prasad-led selection committee, which had interviewed the members of the support staff in 2019, hailed Dilip's coaching skills.
Mhambrey was expected to join Dravid in Sri Lanka
Mhambrey is currently the bowling coach of both India A team and Under-19 Indian team. The former seamer represented Team India in two Tests and three ODIs between 1996 and 1998. He was expected to be the deputy of Dravid for India's tour of SL. Meanwhile, Dravid was named India's head coach as Ravi Shastri will be busy with the Test regulars in England.
Team India to leave for SL on June 27
The 20-member Indian squad, along with five net bowlers, is expected to leave for Sri Lanka on June 27 after a 14-day isolation. Their quarantine period will commence in Mumbai on June 14. Upon arrival in Sri Lanka, the team has been advised a three-day hard quarantine. Thereafter, the soft quarantine will commence, wherein the team will be allowed to practise.
The relaxation on the fitness benchmarks
It has been learned that the BCCI will not force the players to undergo stern fitness tests. The relaxation on the fitness benchmarks in the Yo-Yo test is due to the pandemic situation. Otherwise, the selection committee would have highlighted the need for fitness tests before announcing the squad. Notably, Varun Chakravarthy has failed to clear the fitness test twice in the past.
A look at Team India's squad for SL tour
Squad: Shikhar Dhawan (captain), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (vice-captain), Prithvi Shaw, Devdutt Padikkal, Rituraj Gaikwad, Suryakumar Yadav, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Nitish Rana, Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Sanju Samson (wicket-keeper), Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, Krishnappa Gowtham, Krunal Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Chetan Sakariya.
