Former Indian player Zaheer Khan was appointed as the new coach of the Lucknow Super Giants on Wednesday, August 28. He replaced his former Indian teammate Gautam Gambhir, who was the previous mentor of the franchise. He is now the head coach of the Indian team.
Morne Morkel will now partner Gautam Gambhir as the Indian team’s bowling coach. Gambhir was named the next head coach after Rahul Dravid’s tenure ended after the 2024 T20 World Cup.
Meanwhile, Zaheer Khan, after his appointment as a mentor, said that the real reason behind his joining LSG was the similarity in how they thought about the game.
Zaheer Khan further said that since the common goal was the same, their decision making was smooth and quick.
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The decision was quick and easy: Zaheer Khan on joining LSG
“In the shortest possible time! If I have to answer in a nutshell, I got on the phone and realised that we (LSG management) are people with very similar ideas about cricket, about how cricket should be played at the franchise level and how cricket culture should be built in a franchise. That’s the simple connection I can tell you right now. Of course, there is passion and drive. On the other hand, the basics are already in place. So the decision was very, very quick and smooth,” Zaheer said in an interaction with Cricbuzz.
He further spoke about working with players like Mohsin Khan and Mayank Yadav. Both have had an injury-plagued career so far. Mayank was the big find of the IPL earlier this year but his frequent injuries meant that he could only play four matches and took seven wickets. Mohsin has also been among LSG’s finds but he too has had an injury-prone career.
In the same interaction, Zaheer Khan spoke about working with the two youngsters if the franchise retains them. It is learnt that Zaheer will also participate in player development and scouting programmes during the off-season.
“Every year you discover talent. Every year you see someone shine, someone completely unknown. I’m looking forward to that moment. I think that’s one of the reasons why I want to be part of that bench.”
“I want to be a part of that process. I want to interact with the players and share my knowledge, which I hope will help them go far in some way,” Zaheer said of the two youngsters’ preparation.
Zaheer had a tremendously successful international career for India. He took 311 Test wickets, 283 ODI wickets and 17 T20I wickets. He was a rare left-arm spinner in India who played for over a decade.
Zaheer Khan played 100 career IPL matches playing for franchises like Royal Challengers Bangalore, Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals. He led the Delhi franchise for a couple of seasons and played his last IPL match in 2017.
Prior to joining LSG, Zaheer Khan worked with Mumbai Indians as Director of Cricket before taking on the role of Head of Global Development.
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