Ashish Nehra was offered the role of Team India’s head coach in the T20I format by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), however, the former pacer turned down the offer.
This led to the BCCI announcing the contract extension of head coach Rahul Dravid and his staff on Wednesday. Their contracts had expired with the conclusion of the ICC World Cup 2023 and it was reported that Rahul Dravid didn’t want to continue further. But in the end, BCCI was able to convince him to continue and extend his contract.
However, before Dravid put pen to paper, the BCCI did approach Gujarat Titans coach Ashish Nehra to take up the head coach's role in the national team for the T20 format.
As per NDTV sources, Nehra was approached for the job, but he turned down the offer, citing his commitment to the IPL franchise Gujarat Titans. Under Nehra’s guidance, GT won the IPL 2022 in their debut year and reached the final in IPL 2023.
As per report, Gujarat Titans coach Ashish Nehra never had any intentions of being the head coach of the national team as he has always said that he "wants to honor his contract with GT till 2025".
Furthermore, PTI reported that Nehra has a young family and he doesn't want to live out of a suitcase at the moment, and being the India coach involves extensive travelling. Two and half months of IPL coaching is all he is looking at right now.
However, Nehra has kept the doors open to becoming India's head coach in the future, when he feels the time is right.
On the other hand, the tenure of Rahul Dravid’s contract extension is unknown. It is, however, understood that Dravid would continue to guide the team till the conclusion of the T20 World Cup 2024. A decision over his association with the national team can be taken after the event.
(PTI/NDTV inputs)
