Darren Lehmann, George Bailey In Contention For Kings XI Punjab Coaching Job: Report

Former Australia head coach Darren Lehmann could make his comeback to Kings XI Punjab as their coach, a report in Mumbai Mirror suggests. As per the report, the franchise is in talks with Lehmann, George Bailey and few other Australians for the job and an announcement regarding it will be made soon.

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Interestingly, Bailey is yet to retire from the game and was also in contention to make his Test comeback in March last year. He last played for Australia in an ODI against New Zealand in 2016. The right-handed batsman was a part of Montreal Tigers in Global T20 Canada that concluded recently.

Bailey, a former KXIP player, led them to their only final in 2014 where they lost to Kolkata Knight Riders in the final over. It remains to be seen if Bailey dons the coach’s hat while being an active player.

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Talking of Lehmann, he was associated with the team as its coach in 2013. Recently, he was appointed as the coach of Headingley-based franchise for the Hundred while he was already announced as the coach of Brisbane Heat for next two seasons of Big Bash League.

Lehmann coached Australia from 2013 to 2018. Under him, they won World Cup 2015 and also regained the Ashes in 2017/18. Lehmann was to coach the national team till Ashes 2019 but relinquished the post in March last year. He took a break from coaching following that.

Should he be appointed in the job, he will be replacing Mike Hesson. The later took over as KXIP coach ahead of IPL 2019 but the team failed to qualify for the next round of the tournament.

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Following a poor run, the entire coaching staff of the team had resigned and the team will have to appoint new coaches across all positions.

Hesson was recently running for the head coach job of the Indian cricket team, where he came second to Ravi Shastri. The former New Zealand coach was appointed as the Director of Cricket Operations of Royal Challengers Bangalore yesterday.