By Vipul Kashyap, New Delhi, January 16: Following a disappointing display of cricket in Sri Lanka, Australia as well as in the home series against New Zealand, India head coach Gautam Gambhir opened up about 'indiscipline' in the Indian dressing room during the review meeting on Thursday, according to a source from the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
The former Indian opener said that indiscipline is the reason why BCCI will be going back to pre-Covid rules of allowing families for two weeks of the tour. Gambhir and the players were on the same page on the topic of family stay.
There were some more points in the meeting which were highlighted by Gambhor during the meeting. The 43-year-old said that only one team dinner happened during the 1.5-month-long tour in Australia.
There were also talks on the match fees in the meeting. One senior player who was in the meeting suggested the idea to the Indian Cricket Board of not distributing the match fee because players are not giving priority to domestic and national teams.
According to a source from the BCCI, Team India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate and Abhishek Nayar's roles are under scanner as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) aren't happy with the apparent 'Kolkata Knight Riders touch' in the team management.
Former Indian all-rounder Abhishek Nayar and former Netherlands star Ryan Ten Doeschate joined Team India's support staff as assistant coaches during the white-ball tour of Sri Lanka. Nayar and Doeschate were also the assistant coaches at KKR and worked with Gambhir.
BCCI sources also said that former Saurashtra cricketer Sitanshu Kotak is set to join Team India as an assistant batting coach soon.
Sitanshu Kotak played 130 first-class matches and 211 innings, where he scored 8061 runs at an average of 41.76, laced with 15 centuries and 55 half-centuries in first-class cricket. He also appeared in 89 List A matches, where he scored 3083 runs in 86 innings at an average of 42.23.
This development comes ahead of the upcoming home series against England, where India will play 5 T20Is followed by 3 ODIs.
It is also understood that on the sidelines of the first T20 vs England in Kolkata, a meeting may happen between Gautam Gambhir and BCCI.
Top seamer Mohammed Shami made a return to the India squad as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Saturday announced the 15-member squad for the upcoming T20I series against England.
The five-match T20I series will kick off on January 22 in Kolkata. The second and third matches will be held on January 25 and 28 in Chennai and Rajkot, respectively. The fourth game of the series will be played on January 31 in Pune. Mumbai will host the final match of the T20I series on February 2.
India's squad for the T20I series: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Sanju Samson (WK), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel (VC), Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammad Shami, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Washington Sundar, Dhruv Jurel (WK).
England T20I Squad for T20I series: Jos Buttler (C), Rehan Ahmed, Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Ben Duckett, Jamie Overton, Jamie Smith, Liam Livingstone, Adil Rashid, Saqib Mahmood, Phil Salt, Mark Wood. (ANI)
Speaking about the BGT 2024-25 series, team India conceded a disappointing 3-1 defeat to Australia in the recently concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 and lost the opportunity to qualify for the World Test Championship (WTC) Final at Lord's.
Skipper Rohit Sharma and star batter Virat Kohli came under fire for an underwhelming Border-Gavaskar Trophy campaign and overall a very disappointing 2024/25 season of Test cricket. Sharma (31 runs in three matches and five innings at an average of 6.20) and Virat Kohli (190 runs in five matches and nine innings at an average of 23.75 with a century) lacked big time with the bat. Virat fell for the outside-off-stump trap throughout the series, most notably by pacer Scott Boland who dismissed him four times.
The 2024-25 season of Tests has been miserable for 'Ro-Ko' (Rohit and Kohli). While Rohit scored just 164 runs in eight matches and 15 innings at an average of 10.93 with best score of 52, Virat scored a shambolic 382 runs in 10 matches and 19 innings at an average of 22.87, with just a century and fifty each.
