Team India coaching staff for the tour of Sri Lanka

Former Indian pacer Paras Mhambrey and T Dilip made the team India coaching staff list to assist head coach Rahul Dravid in the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka. India will play 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is in the tour. Mhambrey is assigned the role of bowling coach while T Dilip will take up the fielding coach duties.

Shikhar Dhawan has already been named skipper for the 6 white ball matches with pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar as his deputy.

The 20-member squad, along with five net bowlers, starts quarantine in Mumbai on Monday (June 14) and is expected to leave for Sri Lanka on June 27 after a 14-day isolation. On arrival in Sri Lanka, the team has been advised three-day hard quarantine, having to confine to the rooms only, and three days of soft quarantine after which the team will be allowed to practise, a source from SLC said.

Here is a quick look at the profiles of coaching staff:

Rahul Dravid – Head Coach

Former Indian cricketer Rahul Dravid is on his first mission as a head coach of Indian national team at International level. Previously Dravid coached India A and India U19 teams. India clinched the U19 World Cup under the guidance of Rahul Dravid in 2018. He was also a mentor for Rajasthan Royals in Indian Premier League.

The 48-year old has a huge reputation for his coaching skills and is highly lauded by the youngsters in the team.

Dravid was a prolific International cricketer with 13288 Test runs and 10899 ODI runs to his name. He scored 48 centuries and 146 half centuries for Team India in International cricket. He also led Team India in 25 Tests and 79 ODI matches.

With no preparatory camp before the departure, coach Dravid is believed to have insisted on practice for at least seven days before the first game on July 13. No practice matches have been scheduled for the side but the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) have arranged facilities for intra-squad warm-up games in Colombo.

Paras Mhambrey – Bowling Coach

Former Mumbai and Team India pacer Paras Mhambrey will travel with the team as bowling coach. He played 2 Tests for Team India in the tour of England in 1996. Mhambrey made his debut against England at Edgbaston as a third seamer in 1996 and picked up as his first wicket haul Michael Atherton, however he could not do much with the ball and ended up with only 5 wickets in his only series. He was also selected as the overseas player for North Maidenhead CC

In 1993-94, Mhambrey made his debut and took 30 wickets at 23.77 apiece and selected to the India A side in the next season.

Mhambrey has secured a Level-3 coaching diploma from the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru and was a coach Bengal which entered the finals of Ranji Trophy. He also coached teams like Maharashtra, Baroda and Vidarbha in the Indian domestic circuit.

The 48-year old has also been the assistant coach of Mumbai Indians for a span of four years.

He later took up the role of bowling coach for both India A and India U19 teams.

T Dilip – Feilding Coach

39-year old T Dilip is a surprise inclusion in to the coaching staff of India senior team for the tour of Sri Lanka. The 39-year-old is a fielding coach of the Hyderabad team. Dilip was also a fieldinng coach for India A side in the past.

T Dilip got in to the reckoning when the MSK Prasad-led selection committee, rated him highly after it interviewed the members of the support staff for the Indian team in 2019.

Dilip has secured Level-3 coaching diploma.

No fitness test for players

Meanwhile, it has been learnt that the BCCI will not be insisting on a fitness test for the players. The relaxation on the fitness benchmarks in the Yo-Yo test and 2 km run is believed to be in view of the pandemic situation and continued lockdown in the country. Otherwise, the selection committee, which has included Varun Chakravarthy, who had twice failed to clear the test in the past, would have insisted on the fitness tests before announcing the squad.