VVS Laxman and Hrishikesh Kanitkar will be heading to the 2023 Asian Games as the head coaches of the men’s and women’s teams respectively, to be held in Hangzhou, China. The bowling coach of the men’s team will be Sairaj Bahutule, while their fielding coach will be Munish Bali. Rajib Dutta will be the bowling coach of the women’s team and Subhadeep Ghosh will be the fielding coach.
Laxman, who heads the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru, had earlier stepped in as head coach on the men’s tour when Rahul Dravid was rested. India’s men’s team at the Asian Games will be a reserve team led by Ruturaj Gaikwad, with the main team preparing for the World Cup, which begins on October 5.
Kanitkar was in charge of the women’s team during the home T20 series against Australia in December last year as well as the tri-series in South Africa and the T20 World Cup earlier this year. Former India bowler Nushin Al Khadeer was named the interim head coach for the women’s team’s white-ball tour of Bangladesh after Ramesh Powar transferred to the NCA.
Both teams will enter the Asian Games 2023 at the quarter-final stage. As per the latest schedule, India’s men’s quarterfinal match is on October 3, and the semi-finals are likely to be held on October 5 if they qualify. The title clash is to be held on October 7.
The quarter-finals for the India women’s team are scheduled for September 21, with possible semi-finals on September 23 and the final on September 25. The games will be held at the Pingfeng Campus Cricket Ground of Zhejiang University of Technology (ZJUT).
India’s men’s team for Asian Games 2023: Ruturaj Gaikwad (captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rahul Tripathi, Tilak Verma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wicketkeeper), Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar, Shivam Mavi, Shivam Dubey, Prabhasimran. Singh (wicketkeeper)
Standby player: Yash Thakur, Sai Kishore, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Sai Sudarshan
India women’s team for Asian Games 2023: Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Smriti Mandhana (vice-captain), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wicketkeeper), Amanjot Kaur, Devika Vaidya, Anjali Sarwani, Titas Sadhu, Rajeshwari Gaikwad, Minnu Mani, Kanika Ahuja, Uma Chhetri (wicketkeeper), Anusha Bareddy.
Standby player: Harleen Deol, Kashvi Gautam, Sneh Rana, Saika Ishaq, Pooja Vastrakar.
