A month after the Indian cricket board (BCCI) sacked him as part of a support staff rejig, it has reinstated T Dilip as the fielding coach for India five-Test tour to England starting next month. Dilip, most famous for handing out medals to the best fielder of the match during the T20 World Cup last year, was given a one-year contract.
The BCCI was looking for a foreign fielding coach but they couldn’t find a suitable candidate. “We have decided to reappoint Dilip for a year and he will be travelling with the Indian team for England. His contract so far is for one year,” a source in the Indian board confirmed.
A long-time staff at the National Cricket Academy in , he has worked closely with cricketers such as and Yashasvi Jaiswal among the current crop, apart from the previous batches. Ravi Ashwin, the retired off-spinner, once called him a celebrity coach, and hailed him for improving India’s slip catching. “Close-in catching, in places like short-leg, is a very difficult thing. You don’t get good fielders like this. Jaiswal himself volunteers and stands up. He also does head-to-head work. So, all in all, we didn’t get to see Dilip sir’s name not getting mentioned more prominently,” he said. It would be a decisive aspect in England too, where slip catchers could expect a lot of nicks, and their tasks would be complicated by the breeze.
Dilip, who was part of the NCA set up after being an understudy of Mike Young, the fielding coach of the now defunct Deccan Chargers, joined the team towards the end of the 2021, during the T20 World Cup as part of ’s support staff. After Dravid and his group’s tenure ended after the T20 World Cup last year, only he was given an extension till March 2025.
The Indian team will be flying with coach , fielding coach Dilip, batting coach Sitanshu Kotak, bowling coach Morne Morkel and assistant coach Ryan Ten Doeschate.
Meanwhile, the Indian team management has asked Ten Doeschate to fly to England and assist the India A side. Nine players of India A, coached by former batsman Hrishikesh Kanitkar, are part of the Indian Test team, and will look to get acclimated to the conditions before the first Test on June 20 at Leeds.
India’s new Test captain Shubman Gill is likely to miss the second warm-up game at Northampton, which will be played on June 6. Gill is currently leading for which has qualified for the qualifiers. The final is scheduled on June 3, and if his team qualifies, it could be a scramble to reach England in two days’ time. So the team management has decided to give him some rest before the 46-day tour starts.
