Not Gautam Gambhir, VVS Laxman To Coach Indian Men's Cricket Team At Asian Games. Here's The Reason

Laxman To Conduct Men, Gambhir Stays Put For WI ODIs — Asian Games Squad Names Released

Like a well-composed raga where two melodies weave in parallel, the BCCI's coaching arrangements for the Asian Games 2026 have settled into their natural rhythm. VVS Laxman, Director of Cricket at the CoE, will take charge of the Indian men's side at Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, later this month. He'll be joined in the dressing room by Sunil Joshi, Hrishikesh Kanitkar and Subhadeep Ghosh. Those who watched India's gold medal win at Hangzhou 2023 will remember Laxman's steady hand — a familiar tune, indeed.

The reason for the changeover is simple musical logic: regular head coach Gautam Gambhir remains with the senior team ahead of the home ODI series vs WI (1st ODI on Sept 27). It would be discord to pull him away, so the Asian Games baton passes to Laxman.

The competition begins Sept 24, with India's opening match four days on. The men will face the 2nd-placed side from Group A (Afghanistan, Japan, Nepal), while the women enter at the quarterfinal stage against hosts Japan.

Amol Muzumdar continues conducting the women's camp, flanked by bowling coach Aavishkar Salvi and fielding coach Munish Bali. Both teams carry the weight of defence — the men under captain Shreyas Iyer (with teenage sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi in the mix), the women under Harmanpreet Kaur.

A short glance at the squads: the men's XI blends pace with punch — Bumrah, Rana, Arshdeep up front; Bishnoi, Chakravarthy, Axar, Sundar spin the web; and Sharma, Samson, Kishan, Dube, Tilak Varma up front with the bat. The women bring firepower through Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma and Richa Ghosh, with Radha Yadav and Arundhati Reddy lending extra pace.

The rhythm of Indian cricket continues — only the conductor has changed for a few weeks.

Source: NDTV Sports