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Gautam Gambhir will reportedly return home due to personal reasons but will be back with the side ahead of the second Test in Adelaide.
It is reported that India’s Head Coach for the Senior Men’s Cricket Team, Gautam Gambhir is set to return home on Tuesday, due to ‘personal reasons’. The former Indian cricketer and now Head Coach is part of the Indian squad in Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series. He will return, however, before the second Test in Adelaide.
According to a report by the Indian Express, the Head coach had informed the Board of Control for Cricket in India that he would be going home and coming back ahead of the second Test and BCCI approved the request.
A BCCI source was quoted, “Gambhir has informed us that he will be travelling back home and will join the team before the start of the second Test. He has cited personal reasons and the BCCI has accepted his request”.
Ahead of the 2nd Test, the team will travel to Canberra on Wednesday, to play a two-day tour game with the pink ball, scheduled to begin on Saturday.
The report suggests that Gambhir’s support staff which includes bowling coach, Morne Morkel, assistant coaches Abhishek Nayar and Ryan ten Doeschate and the fielding coach, T Dilip will look after the team’s training sessions with the skipper Rohit Sharma.
Rohit had missed the first Test in Perth due to the birth of his second child and joined the squad ahead of the fourth day. Following India’s win, Rohit did not waste much time and was back training in the nets during the lunch break.
Despite Rohit’s absence, India under the leadership of Jasprit Bumrah won by 295 runs. Bumrah led from the front after a poor first-innings performance with a five-wicket haul while Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli scored 161 and 100 respectively to help set a gigantic target.
Australia looked far from their best with Travis Head being their only positive who scored a valiant 89 in the second innings. The Aussies will be keen to bounce back in Adelaide as they aim to end their 10-year-long wait to reclaim the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
India’s current tour Down Under will be Gambhir’s biggest Test since his appointment and will be keen to deliver a dominating performance after a shocking whitewash in the Test series against New Zealand on home soil.