The newly inducted IPL team Lucknow team has reportedly approached former Team India World Cup-winning head coach, Gary Kirsten, and former left-arm fast bowler, Ashish Nehra, to join the coaching staff for next year’s IPL 2022 season.The RPSG Group has contacted Nehra and Kirsten, both of whom were part of India’s 2011 ODI World Cup-winning squad. While the specifics are yet to be ironed out, the duo was approached to take on the roles of the head coach and the consultant. A final decision is yet to be taken but it is understood by Cricbuzz that the parties are bound by a confidentiality clause that denies permission to reveal the matter to the public. The RPSG group had previously participated in two seasons, 2016 and 2017, with MS Dhoni as the skipper but they were removed from the subsequent editions.
In the IPL 2018 and IPL 2019, Nehra was the bowling coach of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). RCB finished that season in the sixth and eighth positions during the 2018 and 2019 editions respectively. But after IPL 2019, he ended his coaching journey with the RCB.Gary Kirsten enjoyed a successful coaching tenure with the Indian team between 2008 and 2011 before he coached his national side till 2013. His three-year stint with India ended with the ‘Men in Blue’ lifting the 2011 World Cup under the captaincy of MS Dhoni. Kirsten also led India as well as South Africa to World No.1 Test rankings in 2009 and 2012 respectively. Despite his many achievements as head coach at the international level, Gary Kirsten was not able to replicate that success in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) as they finished at the bottom of the points table in 2019.Gary Kirsten also coached Delhi Capitals between IPL 2014 and 2015 before he joined RCB as their batting consultant in 2017.
