Confirmed: Gary Kirsten And Ashish Nehra Join Royal Challengers Bangalore

Few days ahead of the mega auction of the Indian Premier League, three-time finalists Royal Challengers Bangalore, on Monday (January 1), confirmed the addition of Gary Kirsten and Ashish Nehra to their coaching staff which will led by head coach Daniel Vettori.

Kristen has been roped in by the franchise as mentor and batting coach while recently-retired Nehra will ply his trade as mentor and bowling coach.

The report suggesting that Kirsten, who had coached India to number one in Tests and 2011 World Cup title, was on Royal Challengers’ radar was doing the round for quite some time now but Cricbuzz reported the former South Africa opener signed the deal with the Bangalore-based outfit last week only. Kirsten, meanwhile, is not new to coaching in the Indian Premier League. He had previously served for Delhi Daredevils and is currently plying his trade for Hobart Hurricanes in Australia’s Big Bash League.

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Nehra, on the other hand, does not have any formal coaching experience. The former India fast-bowler, who had played under Kirsten in the past, retired from all forms of cricket in November last year and will try his hand at coaching for the very first time.

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The franchise has also given more responsibility to Trent Woodhill and Andrew McDonald as they look to rope in top talents from across the country for the coming years. Woodhill has been given the role of Batting talent development and analytics in addition to being the field coach while McDonald, who had briefly spent time with the side last year, will ply his trade as bowling talent development and analytics. Woodhill will also work as Head of scouting in offseason.

Meanwhile, the franchise will be hoping that the latest addition changes their fortunes this year after a disastrous outing last year where they finished at the bottom of the table after winning just 3 of their 14 games.

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