Abhishek Nayar sacked! KKR’s new head coach declared in verified statement
Published - 18 Apr 2026, 10:40 AM | Updated - 18 Apr 2026, 10:58 AM
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) remain at the bottom of the IPL 2026 points table without claiming a win or a victory in 6 matches. With only 1 point and a negative run rate of -1.149, they are in 10th spot of the 10-team league.
Many have accused Abhishek Nayar, the current head coach of the Kolkata Knight Riders, of being behind the team's poor run, despite the team being one of the league's most successful. If the management wants to replace Nayar, then who will be the head coach of the IPL team?
Former England international Kevin Pietersen provides an early hint regarding this. The former International batter, through a social media post, claimed that in the future, the franchise will be signing Brendon McCullum, who is currently the head coach of the England National Cricket team, and a former Knight Riders opener, who also coached the team in the past.
Kevin Pietersen drops a hint about KKR's new head coach
Baz McCullum will be the coach of KKR next season.
— Kevin Pietersen🦏 (@KP24) April 17, 2026
Bookmark this tweet.
“Baz McCullum will be the coach of the franchise next season. Bookmark this tweet,” Kevin Pietersen wrote this on his ‘X’ post on April 17.
Brendon McCullum’s most remarkable knock for the Knights came in the 2008 season, during the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League. In the very first IPL match on April 18, 2008, McCullum scored an unbeaten 158 off 73 balls against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), setting the highest T20 individual score at the time.
Brendon McCullum has a legacy in KKR
The former New Zealand captain played for KKR for three straight seasons, and then rejoined the franchise for another two seasons in a separate stint. In his first stint with the Kolkata-based franchise, he played from the 2007/08 to 2010/10 seasons before moving to the Kochi Tuskers Kerala (now defunct), then rejoined Kolkata for the IPL 2012 and IPL 2013 seasons. He was a key part of the KKR squad that won its first IPL championship in 2012.
Later, the Kiwi cricket star was an integral part of the team as a head coach as well. Under his guidance, KKR staged a remarkable comeback in the 2021 season, which was resumed in the UAE, to reach the IPL final, finishing as runners-up.
In the Caribbean Premier League, he guided the Knight Riders as part of the wider franchise. He also coached the Trinbago Knight Riders to the Caribbean Premier League title in 2020.
McCullum is currently working as the head coach of England
Brendon McCullum joined England as the Men's Test Head Coach in May 2022. He remains at the helm of the team as the head coach in all three formats. Under his stewardship, the England cricket team adopted an exciting brand of cricket, which allows the cricketers to express themselves through aggressive batting even in the Tests.
However, despite adopting the cricket style, ‘Bazball’, the England cricket team failed to achieve success in multiple high-profile tournaments, including the 2026 T20 World Cup and the previous Ashes series against the arch-rivals Australia. Additionally, McCuullam’s England cricket team players found themselves involved in multiple off-field controversial situations.
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