BCCI's MAJOR U-turn - Sacked coach set to travel England alongside India, Shubman Gill to miss warm-up match

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) took a u-turn as former India's fielding coach T. Dilip, who was sacked will travel to England as the fielding coach for India's five-Test tour to England starting next month. As per the Indian Express, the BCCI were looking for a foreign fielding coach, but they couldn’t find a suitable candidate.

The five-Test match series between India and England is scheduled to start from June 20 and this will be India's first red-ball assignment after a humiliating 3-1 defeat in Australia during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.

“We have decided to reappoint Dilip for a year and he will be travelling with the Indian team for England. His contract so far is for one year,” a source in the Indian board confirmed as quoted by Indian Express.

Dilip is a long-time staff member at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru, he has worked closely with cricketers such as Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal among the current crop, apart from the previous batches. Ravi Ashwin, the retired off-spinner, once called him a celebrity coach and hailed him for improving India’s slip catching.

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IndianExpress also confirmed that the Indian team will be flying with coach Gautam Gambhir, fielding coach Dilip, batting coach Sitanshu Kotak, bowling coach Morne Morkel and assistant coach Ryan Ten Doeschate.

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Apart from that, India's new Test captain Shubman Gill is likely to miss the second warm-up game at Northampton, which will be played on June 6. The young batter is currently leading the Gujarat Titans for the IPL, which has qualified for the qualifiers. The final is scheduled to take place on June 3, and if Gujarat qualifies, it could be a scramble to reach England in two days. So the team management has decided to give him some rest before the 46-day tour starts.

India squad for England series

Shubman Gill(C), Rishabh Pant(vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Parishdh Krishna, Akashdeep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav