Gambhir flies back home from England due to family emergency

India's Test squad in England will be without head coach Gautam Gambhir for the start of the closed-door warm-up fixture against India A in Beckenham from Friday. ESPNcricinfo has learnt Gambhir left for New Delhi on Wednesday due to a family emergency.

In Gambhir's absence, Sitanshu Kotak and Ryan ten Doeschate, the assistant coaches, along with bowling coach Morne Morkel, will take charge of the group. Hrishikesh Kanitkar, meanwhile, is in charge of India A.

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. The retirements of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have opened up at least two slots, with B Sai Sudharsan and Karun Nair in the running to fill them.

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 top-scored in the series with 259 runs, including a double-century in the first game in Canterbury.

Jurel, meanwhile, hit three half-centuries to score 227 runs, while Easwaran struck 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 team management will also potentially be toying over who among Shardul Thakur and Nitish Reddy will play as the seam-bowling allrounder. Reddy picked up two wickets across 26.5 overs while Thakur got two wickets across 43 overs across the two first-class games against Lions. For the pace attack, it's likely that two out of Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna will join Jasprit Bumrah in the XI for the first Test.

"All in all, very happy with the start so far," Morkel said ahead of the warm-up game against India A. "I was a little bit nervous in terms of the lack of red-ball [cricket] we've played. But seeing how the guys are moving around and training the last three days, it's a pleasing sight. There's some quality energy in this group, and that's what you need. 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."

The five-Test series marks the start of India's new World Test Championship cycle as well as the beginning of Shubman Gill's tenure as Test captain.