Zaheer Khan reveals why he joined LSG, opens up on working with Mayank Yadav, Mohsin Khan

Zaheer Khan, the former Indian pacer was named as the new mentor of the Lucknow Super Giants on August 28, Wednesday. 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 with Gautam Gambhir as the bowling coach of the Indian team. Gambhir was named the next head coach after Rahul Dravid's tenure came to an end after the T20 World Cup 2024.

Meanwhile, Zaheer Khan after his appointment as the mentor said that the real reason behind him joining LSG was the likemindedness about how they thought about the game.

Zaheer Khan further said that since the common goal was the same hence his decision-making was smooth and swift.

Also Read: Jay Shah asked to "share the wealth" after assuming the position as ICC Chairman

Decision Was Swift And Smooth: Zaheer Khan On Joining LSG

"In the shortest time! If I have to answer it in quick words, I got on the call, I realized that we (the LSG management) are very like-minded people about cricket, how cricket should be played at the franchise level and how the cricketing culture should be built in a franchise. That is the simple connection which I can tell you right now. Of course, there is passion and drive. On the other side, the building blocks are already in place. So the decision was very, very swift and smooth," said Zaheer in an interaction with Cricbuzz.

He further spoke about working with the likes of Mohsin Khan and Mayank Yadav. Both have had an injury-ridden career so far. Mayank was very much the find of the IPL earlier this year but his frequent injuries meant that he could only play just four matches taking seven wickets. Mohsin too has been among the finds for LSG but he too has had an injury-prone career.

In the same interaction, Zaheer Khan spoke about working with the two youngsters if they are retained by the franchise. It is learned that Zaheer will also be involved in scouting and player-development programs during the off-season.

"Every year you find talent. Every year, you see someone shining bright, who is a completely unknown quantity. I'm looking forward to it. I think that's one of the reasons that I want to be part of that dugout.

"I want to be part of that setup. I want to interact with players and share my knowledge, which hopefully will help them go the distance in some way," said Zaheer on grooming the two youngsters.

Zaheer had a tremendously successful international career for India. He picked up 311 Test wickets, 283 ODI wickets, and 17 T20I wickets. He was a rare left-arm pacer for India to play for more than a decade.

Zaheer Khan played 100 matches in his IPL career playing for franchises like the Royal Challengers Bangalore, Mumbai Indians, and Delhi Capitals. He led the Delhi franchise for a couple of seasons and played his last IPL game in 2017.

Before joining LSG, Zaheer Khan worked with Mumbai Indians as the director of cricket before taking on the role of head of global development.

Also Read: KL Rahul to RCB confirmed? Sanjiv Goenka breaks silence on batter's LSG exit