Gautam Gambhir's five choices for his coaching staff members rejected by BCCI, Abhishek Nayar likely to get nod

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The BCCI have rejected five of Gautam Gambhir's choices for his Team India coaching staff members, and Abhishek Nayar is understandably the only candidate to get a nod from the board.

As per a report in The Economics Times, BCCI has turned down head coach Gautam Gambhir's suggestion to rope in South Africa great Morne Morkel as the bowling coach of the Indian cricket team.

Morkel served as the bowling coach of Pakistan for a brief period. He has played with Gautam Gambhir for Kolkata Knight Riders in the past, and also worked with Gambhir as a coaching staff member at the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in IPL.

Gambhir's early two suggestions for the position of bowling coach was also reportedly rejected by the BCCI. Vinay Kumar and Laximipathy Balaji - both of whom played with the former India opener at KKR - did not get a nod from the BCCI.

Gautam Gambhir, who is set to start his stint as the head coach of the Indian cricket team with the upcoming white-ball tour of Sri Lanka, also wanted Jonty Rhodes as the fielding coach. Rhodes and Gambhir were together as part of LSG coaching staff members before the latter became the KKR mentor ahead of IPL 2024.

Ryan ten Doeschate was the member of KKR coaching unit in the IPL 2024 and has also been part of the Gautam Gambhir-led KKR squad in the past.

Abhishek Nayar was also the assistant coach of KKR in IPL 2024, but hasn't played alongside Gambhir at the franchise. He has earned a reputation for himself after shaping the careers of Dinesh Karthik and Shreyas Iyer positively. The former India international is also believed to have a good relation with Rohit Sharma, and is the only recommendation from Gambhir to take a nod.

Going by the latest developments, Gambhir is very likely to have NCA staff as the members of his coaching team for the Sri Lanka tour. VVS Laxman travelled with them for the Zimbabwe tour recently.