VVS Laxman Replaces Dravid For New Zealand Tour After World Cup Debacle

Adelaide: After being defeated by England in T20 World Cup, the BCCI has decided to send National Cricket Academy chief VVS Laxman as head coach of the team for the upcoming limited-overs tour of New Zealand.

India head coach Rahul Dravid has given a break.

Notably, India are scheduled to play three T20Is and as many ODI matches from November 18 to 30.

Big names like captain Rohit Sharma, former captain Virat Kohli, opener KL Rahul and spinner Ravichandran Ashwin have been rested for the tour.

“The NCA team headed by Laxman with Hrishikesh Kanitkar (batting) and Sairaj Bahutule (bowling) will join the New Zealand-bound squad,” a BCCI source told PTI.

Under the Dravid-led coaching staff, India suffered a 10-wicket defeat at the hands of England in the T20 World Cup semi-final on November 10.

Post the game, India’s head coach Rahul Dravid said that the Indian cricket team had a good overall campaign and played some good cricket in the competition.

“It’s tough after a loss like that. It’s tough to reflect on things so close to the result, but yeah, I think overall we ran a pretty good campaign,” said Dravid in the post-match press conference.

“Over the last year, we’ve played some good T20 cricket. Even in this tournament, I think we’ve had our moments. There’s been some real individual quality from a lot of our players, shown some real good skills. But on the day we were just not good enough here. I’m sure there are things we can look back on and reflect on and see that we’ve improved in and we can take forward and move forward as we build for the next World Cup,” added Dravid.