ENG vs IND, 1st T20I, Southampton: Laxman to join Indian squad as head coach for series opener

Image Source : TWITTER (@VVSLAXMAN281)

As per reports, VVS Laxman will join Indian squad as Head coach for first T20I against England.

As India’s tour to Ireland concludes, it is time for another round of auditions to start for determining a probable squad that will take the flight to Australia for the T20I World Cup which is scheduled to be played in October this year. Team India would have liked to try and test a few youngsters who were at their disposal in the Ireland series but things went pretty smooth for them during the series. With a 2-0 victory in the two-match T20I series against the Irish, the men in blue had no option of making any kinds of changes and persisted with almost the same set of players.

To India’s fortune, they won the series against the Irish and now their caravan moves to England with VVS Laxman as the head coach and Hardik Pandyawho could lead the Indian team for the series opener. The Gujarat Titans captain is fresh out of his IPL 2022 exploits and is probably being considered as one of India’s next white ball captaincy contenders. India’s squad to Ireland has a good mix of experience and youth and to put up a decent show against the Irish side, coach VVS Laxman has been assigned the responsibility to handle the team and provide them all the guidance that they need.

As of now, two squads are stationed in separate locations. The Test squad under head coach Rahul Dravid is competing against England in the remaining Test match that was to be played last year and the other team is sweating it out in Southampton for a three-match T20I series. It will be very interesting to see the team combination that Laxman and Pandya decided to play with.

The likes of Virat KohliPant, and Bumrah will participate in the second and the third T20I as the ongoing Test match ends on June 5, 2022.

India’s squad for 1st T20I: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Ishan Kishan, Ruturaj Gaekwad, Sanju Samson, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra ChahalAxar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar KumarHarshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik

India’s squad for 2nd and 3rd T20I: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra JadejaYuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit BumrahBhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, Umran Malik

India’s squad for 3 ODIs: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shikhar DhawanIshan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, J Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna, Mohd Shami, Mohd Siraj, Arshdeep Singh