Abhishek Nayar and Ryan ten Doeschate are set to travel to Sri Lanka as part of Gautam Gambhir’s support staff. An official confirmation from the BCCI is awaited, but Nayar and ten Doeschate are due to travel to Colombo for the white-ball series against Sri Lanka. The Indian team is set to board the Colombo-bound flight from Mumbai on Monday (July 22) afternoon. Nayar is set to board the flight with Gambhir and the rest of the Indian team members. As far as ten Doeschate is concerned, he is likely to join the team directly in Colombo.
Ryan ten Doechate with Gautam Gambhir
Ryan ten Doechate with Gautam Gambhir
Both Nayar and ten Doeschate were part of the coaching set-up at the Kolkata Knight Riders, where Gautam Gambhir was the mentor. The former Netherlands all-rounder also shared the dressing room with Gambhir as a player at KKR. Interestingly, ten Doeschate was KKR’s fielding coach, but he and Nayar are likely to travel as assistant coaches for the Sri Lanka tour with Team India.
Team India had no official assistant coaches during Ravi Shastri and Rahul Dravid’s tenure. If it happens, it will be the first instance of two assistant coaches in Indian cricket’s set-up.
“Yes, Abhishek Nayar and ten Doeschate are travelling to Sri Lanka as part of the Indian support staff,” a highly-placed source in the know of things said.
This leaves KKR with only head coach Chandrakant Pandit and bowling coach Bharat Arun in their support staff before next year’s mega auction. The combination of Gambhir, Pandit, Nayar, ten Doeschate and Arun had done wonders for KKR as the players were extremely happy with the coaching staff. The results showed as the Kolkata-based franchise went on to lift the IPL trophy after 10 years.
