The BCCI has reappointed T. Dilip as Team India’s fielding coach for one more year, starting with the Test tour of England. This comes one month after he was sacked from his job as the coaching staff was rejigged.

He has worked extensively with cricket players like Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal among the current crop, in addition to the earlier batches, as a longtime employee of the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru. The BCCI was unable to locate a qualified applicant for their search for a foreign fielding coach.

“We have decided to reappoint Dilip for a year, and he will be traveling with the Indian team to England. His contract so far is for one year,” a source told the Indian Express.

Ravi Ashwin, the retired off-spinner, once called him a celebrity coach and hailed him for improving India’s slip catching.

“Close-in catching, in places like short leg, is a very difficult thing. You don’t get good fielders like this. Jaiswal himself volunteers and stands up. He also does head-to-head work. So, all in all, we didn’t get to see Dilip sir’s name not getting mentioned more prominently,” he said.

It would also be a deciding factor in England, where slip catchers would likely get numerous nicks, and the wind would make their jobs more difficult. Dilip was retained by the Gautam Gambhir-led Indian coaching staff from the Rahul Dravid era.

Along with coach Gautam Gambhir, assistant coach Ryan Ten Doeschate, batting coach Sitanshu Kotak, bowling coach Morne Morkel, and fielding coach Dilip, the Indian team will be traveling.

Ten Doeschate has been invited by the Indian team management to travel to England to support the India A team. Before the first Test match on June 20 in Leeds, nine players from India A, who are coached by former batsman Hrishikesh Kanitkar, will try to adjust to the conditions.

New India Test captain Shubman Gill might miss the second warm-up game for India A that will be played at Northampton, which will be played on June 6.

Gill is now in charge of the Gujarat Titans, an IPL team that has advanced to the qualifying round. If his team qualifies for the final, which is set for June 3, it might be a race to get to England in two days. Thus, before the 46-day tour begins, the team management has chosen to give him a break.

(Indian Express inputs)