VVS Laxman and Hrishikesh Kanitkar to head coach Indian cricket teams in Asian Games 2023

The former Indian cricketer and National Cricket Academy (NCA) head VVS Laxman will be the Indian men's cricket team's head coach in the upcoming Asian Games 2023. Hrishikesh Kanitkar is named head coach for India's women's team as the full staff for both teams announced on Monday, September 11. Rajib Dutta, Subhadeep Ghosh, Sairaj Bahutule and Munish Bali will travel with Indian teams to the 2022 Hangzhou Games.

Asian 2023 will kick off on September 19 but the Indian men's team will make their first appearance directly in the quarter-final round due to their team standings in the ICC T20I rankings. They will play the quarter-final fixture on October 3 and if they win they will feature in the semi-final game on October 5. The final of the men's competition is scheduled to take place on October 7.

The women's cricket team will play a quarter-final fixture on September 21 while the semi-final fixtures are scheduled on September 24. The final will be played on September 25 and all games will take place at Zhejiang University of Technology Pingfeng Cricket Field (ZJUT Cricket Field ), Hangzhou.

Sairaj Bahutule will be the bowling coach for the men, while Munish Bali will be their fielding coach. For the women's team, Rajib Dutta will be the bowling coach and Subhadeep Ghosh the fielding coach. Laxman has previously led Indian



teams on two occasions when the head coach Rahul Dravid was given the rest.

Indian women's team remains without a head coach since Ramesh Powar's move to NCA last year. Kanitkar was named Interim head during the T20I series against Australia in December last year while the former offspinner Nooshin Al Khadeer led the team on the recent Bangladesh tour.

Meanwhile, Ruturaj Gaikwad is captaining India's second-string side while the Women in Blue are travelling with a full-strength team under the regular skipper Harmanpreet Kaur.

India men's team for Asian Games 2023: Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rahul Tripathi, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar, Shivam Mavi, Shivam Dube, Prabhsimran Singh (wk)

Standby players: Yash Thakur, Sai Kishore, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Sai Sudarsan

India women's team for Asian Games 2023: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wk), Amanjot Kaur, Devika Vaidya, Anjali Sarvani, Titas Sadhu, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Minnu Mani, Kanika Ahuja, Uma Chetry (wk), Anusha Bareddy.

Standby players: Harleen Deol, Kashvee Gautam, Sneh Rana, Saika Ishaque, Pooja Vastrakar.