While the IPL 2020 is less than one month away to begin, Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) has appointed Andy Flower as the assistant coach of the team. The franchise has also sorted out the other crucial members of the team support staff.
The former Zimbabwe captain Andy Flower has high experiences in coaching. He had a successful coaching tenure for England cricket team, including as the head coach. During that long tenure, England won the ICC World T20 2010, reached the top position in Test team rankings, also won the Ashes 2010/11 in Australia etc.
Flower also experienced the Pakistan Super League (PSL) as he played the batting coach role for Peshawar Zalmi and Head Coach role for Multan Sultans. Most recently, last November, Flower was the coach of the T10 side Maratha Arabians who won the 2019 T10 league.
It will be first IPL experience for Andy Flower
Now, Flower has replaced Sunil Joshi as the assistant coach of KXIP. It will be his first experience in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The franchise has taken this replacement decision after Joshi joined as the chief of the senior men’s national selection committee panel on last Thursday (5th March).
In this new tenure, the 51-year-old Flower will work under the new KXIP Head Coach, Anil Kumble. The former Zimbabwe wicketkeeper-batsman is very excited to start this new journey.
Flower said in the KXIP website, “I am truly excited to come on board as the assistant coach for Kings XI Punjab and look forward to working with Anil Kumble this edition of the IPL. The team looks great and we have a fantastic line up and top-notch support staff and we can’t wait to show the world what the Shers are capable of.”
Also, Adrian Le Roux has joined as the trainer of KXIP while Andrew Leipus will handle the physio role of the team. Both of them worked with Kumble when the leg-spinner was playing for India.
Prabhakar B and Sankar Rajgopal have been appointed as the Training Assistant and R&D Consultant respectively. Meanwhile, Abhijit Kar will assist the physio Leipus while Naresh Kumar will be the team masseur.
Ashish Tuli will continue his role as the Team Analyst. It will be his 11th successive year for KXIP.