Ahead of England tour, BCCI removes coaches Abhishek Nayar, T Dilip as coaches of Indian team

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has removed two of its coaching staff — assant coach Abhishek Nayar and fielding coach T Dilip with immediate effect. Alongside the two, strength and conditioning coach Soham Desai is also on the way out with the men’s team set to have a new masseur as well going into the tour of England in June. The Indian Express understands that the BCCI took the decision on the back of the team’s performance in Australia, where they lost the Test series 1-3.
Among the lot who have been removed, Nayar joined the team as an assant coach last year alongside head coach Gautam Gambhir. Dilip has been part of the set up since Rahul Dravid’s tenure was given an extension till March this year.
In place of Desai, the BCCI has roped in Adrian Le Roux who is set to have his second stint with the Indian team.The South African was the strength & conditioning coach when John Wright was the coach in the early 2000s before going on to join the Proteas men’s team. Since then he has been part of IPL set up, first with Kolkata Knight Riders (2008-2019) and now with Punjab Kings. “Nayar, Dilip and Soham have been informed about it last week. The Indian board will not have any new appointee as of now,” a source in the Indian board confirmed.
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Post the Australia series debacle, the BCCI appointed Sitanshu Kotak as its new batting coach, with Dilip splitting his fielding coach role with assant coach Ryan ten Doeschate.
The decision to part ways with Nayar is interesting because he was roped in after the current set of players rated him highly. During his stint with KKR, he played a key role in nurturing young talents behind the scene. It is unclear as to why the board decided to relieve Nayar, especially since his contract runs till August.
As far as Dilip, the BCCI had given an extension only for a year. Dilip got more limelight for his ‘fielding medal ceremony’ post games during the multi-nation tournament.
The Indian team will be flying to England in June for a long five match Test series. The Indian board earlier had a review meeting post India’s 1-3 loss Down Under and following that it came up with a new set of policies which all players had to follow.