Gautam Gambhir Takes Brief Leave For Personal Reasons, Expected To Be Back Before Adelaide Test

India‘s Senior Men‘s Cricket Team Head Coach, Gautam Gambhir, will leave the team during their tour of Australia temporarily for personal reasons. He is expected to return before the second Test in Adelaide in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.

According to The Indian Express, Gambhir had intimated the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) of his decision to head back home and rejoin the side prior to the Adelaide Test. The BCCI seems to have acceded to his plea, as one of its officials confirmed, “Gambhir has informed us that he will be travelling back home and will join the team before the start of the second Test. He has cited personal reasons, and the BCCI has accepted his request.”

Before the second Test, India will head to Canberra on Wednesday for a two-day pink-ball warm-up match starting Saturday. In Gambhir‘s absence, the coaching team—bowling coach Morne Morkel, assistant coaches Abhishek Nayar and Ryan ten Doeschate, and fielding coach T Dilip—will oversee training under skipper Rohit Sharma.

Rohit, who missed the first Test in Perth with the birth of his second child, joined the side on Day 4. However, India registered a massive 295-run victory under Jasprit Bumrah‘s captaincy. His five-wicket haul, along with tons from Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli, made sure that the team won the match.

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Australia, reeling after a disastrous show, would seek redress in Adelaide as it looks to regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the first time in a decade. Meanwhile, this series shall prove a significant challenge for Gambhir as India had gotten whitewashed at home against New Zealand.