T Dilip took over as India’s fielding coach in late 2021 along with Rahul Dravid’s coaching team.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has once again appointed T. Dilip as the team’s fielding coach for the upcoming England tour after not finding a suitable replacement. Last month, the BCCI removed Dilip and assistant coach Abhishek Nair while reshuffling the coaching staff after India’s poor performance in the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
A BCCI source told the ‘Indian Express’, ‘We have decided that Dilip will be re-appointed as the fielding coach for one year and he will travel with the Indian team on the England tour. Earlier also his contract was for one year.
Let us tell you that T Dilip took over as India’s fielding coach with Rahul Dravid’s coaching team in late 2021. India’s fielding has seen a lot of improvement during his tenure. During the 2023 ODI World Cup and 2024 T20 World Cup, he started the tradition of giving the award to the best fielder after the match, which led to enthusiasm and competition among all the players.
The BCCI was very keen to bring in a foreigner as the new fielding coach, but the board could not do so in a timely manner. After Dilip was removed, assistant coach Ryan Ten Doeschate was given the additional responsibility of fielding coach.
The source said, ‘So there is no point in bringing in a new name at this time and Dilip is also very popular among the players.’ During his previous tenure, Dilip had earlier introduced some popular suggestions, which also improved the level of fielding in the team. These include giving medals to the best fielder on the day of the match or bringing some eminent personalities to distribute those medals.
India’s tour of England starts from June 20
The Indian team now has to tour England which is starting from June 20. Players of both the teams can be seen performing brilliantly in the upcoming Test series. Five Test matches will be played between the two teams in this series. In the upcoming Test series, the captaincy of Team India has been given to Shubman Gill, while Rishabh Pant has been made the vice-captain.
Team India for the upcoming Test series against England:
Shubman Gill (captain), Rishabh Pant (vice-captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudarshan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jaspreet Bumrah, Mohammad Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akashdeep, Arshdeep Singh and Kuldeep Yadav