Former Indian Test captain Anil Kumble has recently taken the charge of the Indian Premier League (IPL) team Kings XI Punjab (KXIP). Recently, he spoke about the initial plan for his new IPL team.
Anil Kumble was the former Head Coach of Indian national cricket team. He also worked as a mentor of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Mumbai Indians (MI). Under his tenure, all the teams achieved great success.
Now, Kumble is the Director of Cricket Operations of KXIP for the next IPL season. He will play the Head Coach role of the team. The legendary Indian leg-spinner is ready to utilise his experience for KXIP. He is focusing to simplify to roles for the players.
Kumble told PTI, “With RCB we did not win the title but we came close a couple of times. With Mumbai, we had wonderful success those three years I was there. It is nice to have the experience of crossing the line. It certainly helps (you as a coach).
He further added, “It is all about a game of cricket at the end of it. If you simplify like that the job becomes a lot easier. The moment you start putting importance to result, wins, trophies then it puts more pressure on the players. So the learning is just to back off and help the players relax and when they are relaxed they tend to perform better.”
You need to be patient and then back the players you have – Anil Kumble
Anil Kumble further pointed out the importance of patience and support the players.
He said, “You learn from the previous experiences you have had as a player, as a coach but IPL is a rollercoaster ride. You need to be patient and then back the players you have. Generally, because of certain results you tend to start looking at other teams and that starts influencing your decision and that is the last thing you want.”
Anil Kumble spoke about KXIP captaincy for the next season
There was a strong media speculation over Ravichandran Ashwin‘s leaving KXIP ahead of the IPL 2020 players’ auction. However, recently, the KXIP co-owner Ness Wadia has claimed that Ashwin is staying in the team.
Ashwin joined KXIP ahead of the 2018 season. Ashwin led the KXIP side in the last two seasons but failed to improve their status. They finished in the seventh and sixth positions in IPL 2018 and 2019 respectively.
Anil Kumble has recently told PTI that the KXIP board hasn’t decided about the captaincy yet for the next IPL season.
Kumble quoted, “We have not decided that yet. Some decisions need to be made but we don’t need to decide at this moment. IPL is still five months away. There is an auction coming up, we will start to build a squad around that as well. Ashwin had a wonderful two years but of course we did not get the right results but we have not made any decision who the captain will be.”
Needs a little bit of experience – KXIP coach
KXIP has never won an IPL trophy. They have finished in the top four positions for only twice, including runners-up in 2014 edition. Apart from Ashwin, KXIP also has the top international cricketers like KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami, Chris Gayle, Sam Curran, Nicholas Pooran, David Miller etc. While Kumble is happy with this squad, he believes that the team needs a little bit of experience.
He said, “We have a really good young squad. Needs a little bit of experience. We do have Chris who is the most experienced player in the world. I have not really got into the specifics as I just have taken over. But yes we will be settling down soon and put together a strategy for the way forward.
“In 12 years the only time they have got close is in 2014 when they lost in the finals. So to win a maiden trophy is the ultimate goal.”
The IPL 2020 players’ auction will be held on 19 December 2019 in Kolkata.