Ashish Nehra to be head coach of Ahmedabad IPL franchise in IPL 2022: In the recent row of developments, former Indian pacer Ashish Nehra is all set to take up the head coach’s role in the newly announced Ahmedabad based IPL franchise in the next season of the tournament.
Ahmedabad and Lucknow have been added to the existing eight IPL teams to boost the competition in the glamorous tournament. The addition of the two new teams will not only help BCCI to generate healthy revenue but also help in giving more opportunities to the young talents in India.
“As far as I have heard, they have signed Ashish as their head coach and someone who would be in overall charge of the franchise,” a close source said as quoted by News18.
The source further added that Vikram Solanki, former England opener, is likely to be the ‘Director of Cricket Operations,’ while Gary Kirsten will be a mentor in the team.
It must be noted that the Ahmedabad based IPL franchise hasn’t received the Letter of Intent (LOI) as of yet, but the team is probable to receive it in January itself.
“Solanki will be the ‘Director of Cricket’ and also expected to double up as batting coach and Kirsten will be in a mentorship role.”
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“The Ahmedabad franchise can’t announce it formally as it is a BCCI diktat and they can only make a formal announcement after they get the LOI. The head honchos of the Ahmedabad franchise has already interviewed the trio and short-listed them for the season,” the source added.
The former Indian pacer was associated with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) as the bowling coach. Interestingly Gary Kirsten has also coached RCB a couple of seasons earlier.
Both Nehra and Kirsten have a long-standing camaraderie from India days itself. Nehra was a member of the Indian squad when team India lifted ODI World Cup 2011 under Gary Kirsten’s shadow.
It should be noted that Nehra is keener on building a team from scratch and hence accepted the role of head coach in the Ahmedabad IPL franchise. The reports suggest that several IPL teams have earlier contacted the pacer for his services either as bowling coach or the mentor, however, the former speedster denied all the roles as he is more or less into building a formidable squad for a team.
The official confirmation from the Ahmedabad IPL franchise will come after it receives the Letter of Intent (LOI) from the BCCI.
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