Gambhir return home from England due to family emergency

Head coach Gautam Gambhir will not be in charge of India's Test team in England for Friday's private warm-up game against India A in Beckenham. ESPNcricinfo has learned that Gambhir left on Wednesday for New Delhi because of a family emergency. The group will be led by assistant coaches Sitanshu Kotak and Ryan ten Doeschate, as well as bowling coach Morne Morkel, in Gambhir's absence. Meanwhile, India A is under the direction of Hrishikesh Kanitkar. The match in Beckenham offers the senior India side an opportunity to tune up ahead of the team's departure for Leeds ahead of the Test series opener against England from June 20. Gambhir's absence comes at a crucial time, with the team management set to deliberate on the batting order, something he had said would be decided in the run-up to the first Test. B Sai Sudharsan and Karun Nair are in the running to fill the vacancies created by Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli's retirements. Of members of India's Test squad who featured for India A in two unofficial Tests against England Lions, Nair, Dhruv Jurel and Abhimanyu Easwaran were among the runs. Nair scored 259 runs, including a double-century in the first game in Canterbury, to lead the series. In contrast, Jurel scored 227 runs with three half-centuries, while Easwaran hit two fifties. KL Rahul, tipped to open the batting with Yashasvi Jaiswal in the Test series, made scores of 116 and 51 in his only outing in Northampton. The management of the team may also be debating who, between Shardul Thakur and Nitish Reddy, will play seam-bowling allrounder. In the two first-class matches against Lions, Reddy took two wickets in 26.5 overs and Thakur took two wickets in 43 overs. Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj, and Prasidh Krishna are likely to join Jasprit Bumrah in the XI for the pace attack in the first Test. "All in all, very happy with the start so far," Morkel said ahead of the warm-up game against India A. "Due to the fact that we haven't played any red-ball cricket, I was a little bit nervous. However, it is a pleasing sight to observe the guys moving around and training over the past three days. You require some high-quality energy, and this group has it. You need to go into a Test series confident, you need to have that team spirit in the group, and I think so far they have done a great job." Both India's new World Test Championship cycle and Shubman Gill's tenure as Test captain begin with the five-match series.