Gautam Gambhir leaves for India amid England tour

India head coach Gautam Gambhir rushed back to New Delhi ahead of the visitors’ closed-door four-day warm fixture in Beckenham, international media reported on Friday.

According to a report, Gambhir headed back home to attend his ailing mother, who suffered a heart attack a couple of days ago.

His mother is currently receiving treatment at a local hospital in the capital and the report claimed that the sources close to the India head coach have shared the doctors are satisfied with her recovery process.

This means that Gambhir may re-join India's squad ahead of their first Test against England, scheduled to commence on June 20, however, there is no confirmed date of his potential return.

The uncertainty also surrounds who will be in charge of the visiting team in Gambhir’s absence, while several reports indicated that Sitanshu Kotak and Ryan ten Doeschate, the assistant coaches, along with bowling coach Morne Morkel may take reigns of the group.

Gautam Gambhir’s absence comes at a crucial time as the touring side were to deliberate on the batting order, which he had shared would be decided in the run-up to the opening Test.

The touring side are currently engaged in a four-day practice match between senior national side and India A team, which will run behind closed doors until June 16.

The upcoming five-match away series against England, slated to run from June 20 to August 4, holds significance importance for the former ICC World Test Championship (WTC) finalists as it would mark the start of Shubman Gill’s captaincy tenure.

India squad for England Tests:

Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (vice captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akashdeep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav.