India head coach Gautam Gambhir will reportedly travel with the India A team to England before the IND vs ENG Test series. The five-match affair, which’ll mark Rohit Sharma and co’s first since Border-Gavaskar Trophy, will get underway from June 20. If the southpaw does travel with the team, then this would be the first instance when the head coach of the senior team will accompany an India A side on a tour.
Gambhir to travel with India A to England?
As per Times of India, Gambhir intends to travel with the India A side to get a clearer view of the reserve pool. A source told the publication that the head coach’s belief in wild card players is likely to be asserted in the England tour as well, following India’s Champions Trophy victory.
“Gambhir has been in discussions with the BCCI since he returned from Australia. He has expressed his desire to travel with the India ‘A’ team to get a clearer view of the reserve pool,” a BCCI source said.
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Coach wants more India A tours
The source added that Gambhir, chief selector Ajit Agarkar and NCA head VVS Laxman identified reviving India A tours as a crucial issue. Following he end of Dravid’s tenure, there were only a handful of such tours and they were scheduled only before an important series.
“One of the crucial issues identified is reviving India ‘A’ tours. There have been only a handful ‘A’ series after Dravid left NCA and all of those were shadow tours for a marquee series. Gambhir too believes that there needs to be more ‘A’ tours,” the source added.
Why India’s reserve pool needs to be more deeper
India cricket team has been too dependent on a set of players in Tests in the recent past. The best example for that is the overdependence on Bumrah in the absence of Shami in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. It eventually led to the veteran pacer being ruled out of Champions Trophy due to a lower-back injury.
Additionally, a report had earlier claimed that the selectors weren’t eager to plan the England tour around the duo of Bumrah-Shami as they were injury-prone. Therefore, it makes more sense for Gambhir to indeed take a closer look at the reserve pool to unearth more gems.
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