BCCI was set to overhaul the coaching staff after the Border-Gavaskar Trophy debacle
India won the first Test at Perth in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 which offered a glimpse of bright days ahead of successfully repeating their defence of the trophy they had won on back-to-back tours of Australia.
However, that didn’t seem to be the case as their form started getting worse with each passing day of every match.
In the end, they slumped to a 1-3 loss and lost a chance to make the World Test Championship final for the third time in a row. Even before that humiliation, they were condemned to a 0-3 whitewash at home by New Zealand.
Their performances reached such a level that captain Rohit Sharma had to cut himself off from the playing XI for the final and fifth Test against Australia in hopes of an improved performance. That didn’t happen and resulted in massive changes within the Indian men’s team set-up.
Centrally-contracted players were mandated to play domestic cricket, players were not barred from bringing their personal entourage along with them on series and personal vehicles to practice. After that, batting coach Abhishek Nayar and fielding coach T Dilip were sacked.
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As the time for the England Test series drew closer, Rohit Sharma announced his retirement from Tests which was closely followed by Virat Kohli bringing his storied red-ball career to an end.
Shubman Gill was appointed the new Test captain with Jasprit Bumrah reportedly turning down the offer to succeed Rohit. Rishabh Pant was named Gill’s deputy for the series as veterans like Shardul Thakur and Karun Nair made long-awaited returns to the Test squad.
The overhaul was also visible through the selection of Abhimanyu Easwaran, Sai Sudharsan and Arshdeep Singh.
However, the BCCI were forced to turn back to a familiar face as the series loomed closer. With no replacements found for a fielding coach, T Dilip was reinstated and will now travel with the squad to the UK.
According to a report by Cricbuzz, Rohit Sharma had influenced the Board’s decision on Dilip and also hand him a contract extension. The former skipper, along with several other Indian players, had vouched for Dilip as the man responsible for India’s steep improvement as a fielding unit in the last few years.
Dilip had joined the senior team with former head coach Rahul Dravid after working at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru.
He had introduced new methods to improve India’s slip catching and brought in a reward system in the dressing room for excelling in the field.
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