No Rahul Dravid or VVS Laxman! BCCI announces head coach for ODI series against South Africa

Sitanshu Kotak is the current coach of India A and had coached the Indian team during their tour of Ireland, where 3 T20Is were played.

No Rahul Dravid or VVS Laxman! BCCI announces head coach for ODI series against South Africa

Rahul Dravid talks to the press after India's loss in the 2023 ODI World Cup finals (Image via ESPN)

With the One Day international series soon starting against South Africa, the BCCI announced that Rahul Dravid will be focusing on the Test team, withdrawing from the ODI series. He along with batting coach Vikram Rathour, bowling coach Paras Mhambrey and fielding coach T Dilip are paying attention to the Test team. 

Many people thought that VVS Laxman would come in, but the National Cricket Academy head is not the acting head coach. Instead it is Sitanshu Kotak, the head coach of India A will be filling in.

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He had previously coached the Indian team during India’s tour of Ireland.  Kotak was already in South Africa as he was the head coach of the India A side that played a 4-day first class match against South Africa A. He will be joined by bowling coach Rajib Datta and fielding coach Ajay Ratra.

Kotak retired from cricket in 2013 and since then has been focusing on coaching. He coached Saurashtra to their maiden Ranji Trophy and currently works in the NCA as a batting coach as well.

India gears up for first ODI since World Cup final 

India will be playing its first ODI after the World Cup final loss on 17th December. Only three players from the World Cup squad are in the squad, them being KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and Kuldeep Yadav. Rahul will be captaining the side for all three matches. 

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Indian Team during the 2023 Asia Cup (Image via ESPNcricinfo)

The pace attack includes Arshdeep SIngh, Avesh Khan,Mukesh Kumar and Akash Deep, who have played a grand total of 11 ODIs. Axar Patel finally returns after an injury kept him out of the World Cup and rising stars Rinku Singh and Sai Sudrashan find themselves in the ODI team for the first time. 

The first ODI will be played in The Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg. It will start at 10 am SAST (1:30pm) and will be the first step to developing a team for the 2025 Champions Trophy. 

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