File photo of Ashish Nehra
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the contract extension of head coach Rahul Dravid and his staff on Wednesday. The contract of Dravid and his team had come to a conclusion with the end of Cricket World Cup 2023. While there were speculations over the BCCI’s search for a new coach, all the parties settled on Dravid’s extension, though the length of the contract isn’t yet known. However, before Dravid put pen to paper, the BCCI did approach Gujarat Titans coach Ashish Nehra to take up head coach’s role in the national team for the T20 format.
Sources confirmed to NDTV that Nehra was approached for the job but he rejected the offer, owing to his commitments with the Indian Premier League franchise. A report in news agency PTI explained the reason behind Nehra’s refusal.
It must be mentioned that Gujarat Titans coach Ashish Nehra never had any intentions of being the head coach of the national team as he has always said that he “wants to honour his contract with GT till 2025”.
Nehra has a young family and he doesn’t want to live out of suitcase at the moment and being the India coach involves extensive travelling. Two and half months of IPL coaching is all he is looking at right now.
However, in future when the time is right, he might consider being a white-ball coach of national team.
What is interesting to see is that the length of Dravid’s contract isn’t yet known. It is, however, understood that Dravid would continue to guide the team till the conclusion of T20 World Cup 2024. A decision over his association with the national team can be taken after the event.
Nehra’s current contract with Gujarat Titans, his IPL franchise, runs till 2025. Considering the franchise has already lost its captain Hardik Pandya to Mumbai Indians, it is understandably tough for them to let go of their in-demand coach at this hour. Nehra had no intentions to force a move either
With PTI inputs
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