"Factually incorrect, baseless": BCCI secretary Saikia denies board approaching VVS Laxman for Test coach gig

New Delhi [India], December 28 (ANI): The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Devajit Saikia denied speculations of Indian batting legend VVS Laxman being approached to be men's team next Test coach as "factually incorrect and baseless", saying that the board has not taken any steps regarding change of leadership group in the longest format of the game.
The media reports of Laxman being approached to become India's next Test coach has been doing the rounds. The news comes just a few weeks after India suffered a 0-2 Test whitewash to South Africa at home under Gautam Gambhir, their second whitewash in back-to-back years following a humiliating 0-3 loss to New Zealand last year under the same coach, which marked India's first Test series loss at home since 12 years and starting of crumbling of India's great Test empire, guarded well by leaders like MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma for over a decade.
The NZ whitewash cost a once well-settled India a place in the ICC World Test Championship 2025 final, and the latest setback to the Proteas could also end up costing them a berth in the marquee one-off Test championship clash, depending on how further results go.
Speaking to ANI, Saikia said, "This is totally incorrect news going on. This is totally speculative news. Some very reputed news agencies are also flashing the news. There is no truth to it. BCCI straight away denies. People can think all they want, but BCCI has not taken any steps. This is somebody's figment of imagination; there is no truth in it, and I cannot say anything except that this is factually incorrect and baseless news."
While Team India has been doing extremely well under Gambhir in limited-overs cricket, lifting the ICC Champions Trophy and Asia Cup T20I edition in unbeaten runs, same cannot be said about Test cricket as under him, India has won just seven Tests and lost 10, drawing the other two. As far as the series record is concerned: India started off well with a 2-0 series win against Bangladesh at home, but back-to-back setbacks against New Zealand and Australia (1-3 Border-Gavaskar Trophy loss away from home) lead to legends Rohit, Virat, and Ravichandran Ashwin hanging up their whites.
The 2-2 draw against England away from home, in one of the most gripping Test series over the years under leadership of a young Shubman Gill, followed by a 2-0 series win at home against West Indies did instill hope, before Proteas skipper Temba Bavuma, spinner Simon Harmer and pace all-rounder Marco Jansen chipped in with some of the best performances of the year to first deny India a chase of merely 124 runs at Kolkata and then inflict on them their biggest-ever Test loss by 408 runs. In both the Tests, India missed the services of skipper Gill, who went down due to a neck injury sustained just minutes into his batting stint at the Kolkata Test, with Rishabh Pant stepping in as captain.
But India did well enough to secure well-fought ODI and T20I series against Proteas by margins of 2-1 and 3-1 respectively, to make the home series a decent affair overall.
Now, India's most significant challenge ahead is not Test cricket for a while, but defending their T20 World Cup crown, won under Rohit Sharma's captaincy last year, with a new-look team led by Suryakumar Yadav in the tournament starting on February 7. India will start off their campaign against the USA on the same day in Mumbai and have been placed alongside Pakistan, Namibia, the Netherlands and the USA in Group A. While the young Indian team has displayed a golden standard of T20I cricket for the most part this year in their unbeaten run across all the series, playing their first T20 World Cup in the absence of stalwarts Rohit and Virat for first time in several years in front of a home crowd would be an interesting challenge. (ANI)