Gautam Gambhir’s growing influence evident as Nayar, Dilip shown exit door
The Indian team coaching staff is set to shrink with assistant coaches Abhishek Nayar and T Dilip not likely to get contract extensions
Mumbai: As a fallout of India’s 3-1 defeat to Australia in the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar trophy which cost them a berth to the World Test Championship final, assistant coach Abhishek Nayar and fielding coach T Dilip have been shown the exit door.
“There will be a reshuffle in the coaching staff starting with the upcoming five-Test series in England,” a BCCI official confirmed.
For now, there won’t be any high-profile additions to the Gautam Gambhir-led coaching staff. Sitanshu Kotak, who joined the team as batting coach in January will work with the team in England. Assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate is set to take over duties as fielding coach. Strength and conditioning coach Soham Desai is set to be replaced by South African Adrian le Roux who has worked with the Indian team before.
On the face of it, Nayar and Dilip appear to be the fall guys of a series debacle which exposed deeper cracks within the Indian Test set up. What’s left unsaid officially and will not find a mention in the media release is head coach Gambhir having a final say on team matters.
The popular belief is that Nayar was one of Gambhir’s picks as the two had worked together at Kolkata Knight Riders but his appointment was actually backed by captain Rohit Sharma.
Nayar has worked closely with Rohit before to help him stay in shape on the fitness front. Besides, Dilip’s appointment, too, had Rohit’s vote. Dilip was the only one from Rahul Dravid’s support staff to be retained when Gambhir took charge, last July.
It first became evident during the Border-Gavaskar trophy post-mortem meeting of the team management with BCCI officials that Gambhir, who had been picked for a three-year coaching tenure, would have a greater say. After the meeting, the board issued a set of team protocols that mandated all players to travel together in the team bus post practice and cut down family time on tour.
The ineffectiveness of support staff was also one of the matters that came up for discussion, following which Kotak was appointed for his technical expertise as a batting coach. The move was also seen as a notice to Nayar.
Coaching staff review, however, is a subjective affair. A few India batters like Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul have spoken glowingly of Nayar as a coaching hand. Nayar’s mentoring skills, especially for white-ball cricket, have been appreciated by several cricketers.
And that is why the coaching reshuffle is being seen more as an effort to allow Gambhir to work with a freer hand, with Rohit at the twilight of his career. The Gambhir-Rohit equation has been cold compared to the Dravid-Rohit relationship. Their only notable win as a team management was India’s Champions Trophy triumph in March.
Rohit’s future
The Indian team for the England tour will be picked in the coming days and Rohit’s continuation as player and captain will be one of the talking points in lead up to the selection. On his part, Rohit has given several indirect hints that he does not wish to throw in the towel just yet.
After the Champions Trophy triumph, Rohit made it known that he had no plans to retire from the ODI format.
Earlier, in the mid-match interview Rohit did with Star Sports during the Sydney Test, he had said that he had voluntarily dropped out of the Test for form but would not know how things would be five months from now. Five months from the Sydney Test is the tour of England, before which the selectors have to decide if Rohit gets his wish.
