Picture Credit: RCB
According to reports, Gary Kirsten, Team India's 50-over World Cup-winning coach, is likely to make a comeback by mentoring the newly formed Lucknow team of the Indian Premier League. The veteran coach has had two unsuccessful stints with the Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the recent past. As per Cricbuzz, Gary and Ashish Nehra have been approached to be head coaches and consultant for the new franchise. The Lucknow based team will debut in the 2022 season.
Gary Kirsten is likely to coach the staff of the newly formed Lucknow based franchise. He also played a key role when Team India won the 2011 World Cup. A final decision on the duties has not been announced yet.
Kirsten was part of the Delhi Capitals campaign in 2015-16. Unfortunately, the team did not do well under his mentorship. The capitals lost 20 of 28 matches that season. Then after a gap of one year, Gary mentored the Virat Kohli led Bangalore franchise for 2 years, both of which were unsuccessful seasons.
It is to be noted that if Gary Kirsten and Ashish Nehra join the Lucknow based franchise, it will be a reunion for them as they were together with the Bangalore franchise in the past.
On the other end, Ravi Shastri ended his position as Team India's head coach with the T20 World Cup being his last assignment. It is to be noted that Shastri is likely to join the Ahmedabad franchise as a mentor. According to Cricbuzz, he might be joined by Bharat Arun and R Sridhar who were also part of Team India's coaching panel.