The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has called back fielding coach T Dilip to the men’s international set-up, only weeks after they decided not to renew his contract in April. According to The Indian Express, the board couldn’t find a replacement for the popular coach and decided to give him a one-year contract. Dilip, who rose up through the ranks of the National Cricket Academy (NCA, now called the Centre of Excellence) without any first-class experience, joined the Indian team in 2021 during the T20 World Cup as part of Rahul Dravid’s support staff. He’s among the most vocal members of the backroom staff, known for his engaging activity-like fitness regimes and the famous ‘fielding medal’ ceremonies during the 2023 World Cup. “We have decided to reappoint Dilip for a year and he will be travelling with the Indian team for England. His contract so far is for one year,” the newspaper cited a BCCI source as saying. Previously, now-retired India Test legend Ravichandran Ashwin has also spoken highly about Dilip. “If you want to talk about fielding, where should we start? Let’s talk about Dilip sir first. Actually, we’d searched for our fielding coach on Google and he turned out to be an internet personality. So unfair,” Ashwin said in a video in his YouTube channel. “He is not an internet personality. He is our celebrity fielding coach, a superstar… Close-in catching, in places like short-leg, is a very difficult thing. You don’t get good fielders like this… So, all in all, we didn’t get to see Dilip Sir’s name not getting mentioned more prominently,” he added. He’ll fly to England with head coach Gautam Gambhir, batting coach Sitanshu Kotak, bowling coach Morne Morkel and assistant coach Ryan Ten Doeschate. Meanwhile, the report also mentioned that the team management has asked Ten Doeschate to fly to England and assist the India ‘A’ side that’ll play against the England Lions in the lead-up to the five-Test series. The series will mark the start of the new World Test Championship cycle.