Karnataka veteran and current USA head coach J Arun Kumar has been appointed as the assistant coach ahead of the 2023 IPL season. Arun Kumar joins MI ranks after a shake-up in the coaching setup that saw appointments of Kieron Pollard as the batting coach and Mark Boucher as the head coach after his predecessor Mahela Jayawardene was delegated with higher responsibilities as the global head of performance.
This new engagement with MI will effectively end his two-and-a-half-year stint as USA head coach.Regarded highly in the Indian domestic circles, Arun Kumar was Karnataka batting coach when they famously won the treble- Ranji Trophy, Irani Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy- in back-to-back seasons between 2013 and 2015. He got his first taste of elite coaching with his appointment as the Punjab Kings batting coach for the 2017 season.After coaching Hyderabad and Puducherry in the subsequent seasons, Arun Kumar replaced interim head coach James Pamment as the USA head coach in April 2020.
