National Cricket Academy chairman VVS Laxman will be the head coach of the Indian men’s team for the upcoming Asian Games Hangzhou in China which will be held from September 23 to October 8, while Hrishikesh Kanitkar will handle the reins of the Women’s team at the event.
Laxman is currently overseeing a high-performance camp of India’s emerging players at Alur near Bangalore. Along with Laxman, the support staff of the Indian men’s team for the Asian Games will include ex-India leg-spinner Sairaj Bahutule as the bowling coach, and Munish Bali as the fielding coach.
In the case of the Indian women’s team, the appointment of the new head coach and the support staff seems to have been deferred till the start of the new international home season in December.
Kanitkar, who played 2 Tests and 34 ODIs, was in charge of the Indian women’s team for the Women’s T20 World Cup in South Africa in February. Joining him on an interim basis will be Rajib Dutta (bowling coach) and Subhadeep Ghosh (fielding coach) in the support staff for the women’s side.
Indian teams will be participating in cricket events in the Asian Games after 9 years.
Ruturaj Gaikwad will captain the Indian men’s team featuring IPL performers like Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, Washinton Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Tilak Varma, and Ravi Bishnoi.
The women’s squad, on the other hand, will be a full-strength unit, however, captain Harmanpreet Kaur will not be available for the first two matches due to her ban.
Due to their better ICC T20I rankings, both the men’s and women’s teams at the Asian Games 2023 will play directly in the quarterfinal round.
(Times of India inputs)
