Kumar Sangakkara was expected to be the new white-ball coach for the England side and grow a partnership with captain Jos Buttler. But, with the ECB extending the red-ball coach Brendon McCullum for the limited overs format, that possibility was ruled out. However, there was another cloud of thoughts hovering around his future in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
The Indian World Cup-winning coach, Rahul Dravid, after his successful stint with the Indian team in the West Indies and the United States of America (USA), has shaken hands with the Rajasthan Royals (RR), his former side in the tournament’s history, as Kumar Sangakkara remains to be the director of their game around the world.
However, there were speculations that Dravid could be the new mentor of the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), who has been without Gautam Gambhir since the last season after the latter became the new head coach of the national side. With the Karnataka veteran now becoming the new member of RR, that thought process has ended.
KKR is in talks with Kumar Sangakkara to be their new mentor
Recent reports have claimed that the former Sri Lanka captain, Kumar Sangakkara, is in talks to be the new mentor of the defending champions, who had an excellent tournament in 2024 under the mentorship of Gambhir.
The Shreyas Iyer-led side finished the league stage of the competition at the top position with nine victories in 14 games at a net run rate (NRR) of +1.428 and enjoyed their very first title of the tournament after a gap of ten years.
The reports of Telegraph has revealed that Kumar Sangakkara, who has been the director of the Royals family since 2021, has decided to end the relationship with the franchise. The Knight Riders already have their new head coach from the last season, Chandrakant Pandit, while the former Indian bowling coach, Bharat Arun, is in charge of the bowling coach.
Along with Gambhir, the purple team has also lost the services of their fielding coach, the former Netherlands allrounder Ryan Ten Doeschate, and the assistant coach, Abhishek Nayar, both of whom are currently working with the Indian team.
Some of the other franchises- like the Delhi Capitals, who have parted ways with their veteran head coach and the former Australian captain Ricky Ponting, or Punjab Kings, who, according to the reports, is also set to leave out their coach Trevor Bayliss before the new season, are also in need of hiring someone in the coaching position.
It has been learned that the Knight Riders have been advanced in making their decision with Kumar Sangakkara for the mentor role, but the veteran has also received offers from some of the other franchises, and a decision is likely to be made 9n the next few weeks.
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One of the brightest aspects of the last season for the three-time champions of the IPL was how consistently they backed their players, both senior and young. Harshit Rana played the whole season and showed his pace and aggression along with two quality spinners, Sunil Narine and Varun Chakaravarthy.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is also expected to announce the rules and regulations for retention list for the franchises, which will also help them in getting a proper understanding of the players they want to keep going into the mega auction, which is expected to be taken place towards the end of the year.