Team India head coach Rahul Dravid, whose two-year tenure finished following the end of the 2023 ODI World Cup, will not sign a new contract. Moreover, he desires a role as head of the National Cricket Academy (NCA). However, current NCA head VVS Laxman is reportedly taking over the reins of the senior team, with the upcoming South Africa tour going to be the first major assignment as well.
However, Rahul Dravid took over as Team India’s head coach after Ravi Shastri’s exit in late 2021 as well. He along with all-format skipper Rohit Sharma guided the team into the knockout stages of three ICC events as well. Team India made it to the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup 2022, the finals of the World Test Championship (WTC) cycle, and the 2023 ODI World Cup also but they couldn’t win any of them.
According to a report by the Times of India, Dravid is not interested in the constant travel that the job demands. Apart from potentially becoming the NCA head once again and assisting the senior Indian team on a few select occasions, He is also in talks with an IPL franchise over a two-year deal to become a member of their coaching staff as well.
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“Laxman has expressed his keenness for the job. During the World Cup, Laxman travelled to Ahmedabad to meet the BCCI’s top bosses in this regard. He’s likely to sign a long-time contract as the Team India coach, and will certainly travel with the team in that capacity for the upcoming tour of South Africa, which will be his first as the full-time India head coach,” a reliable source in the BCCI told TOI.
“Dravid has communicated to the BCCI that he isn’t keen to continue as a full-time coach. For close to 20 years, he has travelled with the Indian team as a player, and for the past couple of years, he again went through the same grind, which he doesn’t want to undergo. He’s fine with a role at the NCA as the head there (a role he previously served in), which will allow him to stay back in his hometown Bengaluru. Like earlier, he’s fine with coaching the team sporadically, but not again as a full-time coach,” the source added.
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On the other hand, VVS Laxman is currently playing the head coach’s role for the senior team for the upcoming five-match T20I series against Australia. Due to the hectic schedule in recent times, he has coached the team several times, most recently during the Asian Games 2023, where Team India won the gold medal as well.
