The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Wednesday announced that VVS Laxman will be the interim head coach of Team India for the upcoming Asia Cup 2022.
This comes after head coach Rahul Dravid tested positive for Covid-19 before the team departed to UAE for the tournament.
India is scheduled to begin their campaign with a game against Pakistan on August 28. In an official release on Wednesday, BCCI said, “Dravid will join the team once he tests negative and is cleared by the BCCI Medical Team.”
It may be noted that Dravid had tested Covid-19 positive during a routine test conducted before the team’s departure to the UAE. He is currently under the supervision of the BCCI Medical team and is reportedly showing mild symptoms.
It may be noted that Asia Cup 2022 will be played in the UAE starting from August 27, till September 11. The six teams are divided into two groups with India, Pakistan and a qualifying team in Group A and Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan in Group B.
Each team will play the other once in the group stage with the top two teams progressing to the next round, that is, Super 4. The two winning teams in that round will each qualify for the final.
Defending champions India won the 2018 edition of the tournament, their seventh title. It is the most successful team in the history of the tournament.
The Indian squad for Asia Cup includes Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan.