Kolkata Knight Riders have roped in Ottis Gibson as their Assistant coach ahead of IPL 2025. He joins a well-oiled think tank already present at the Knight Riders. KKR, are the defending champions of the IPL and will play the season opener against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at Eden Gardens on March 22.
Gibson joins the likes of Chandrakant Pandit (head coach), Dwayne Bravo (mentor), Bharat Arun (bowling coach) and Carl Crowe (spin bowling coaching). He brings a lot of coaching experience along with him and it will be intersting to see how he manages to impart it to the young players in the squad.
Gibson played international cricket for West Indies for four years. Then he took up coaching. he has served as England's bowling coach in two separate stints. He has also served as the head coach for West Indies (2010-14) and South Africa (2017-19) and led the former to their first T20 World Cup title in 2012. He also briefly worked with Bangladesh and the Yorkshire County side apart from mentoring several T20 sides.
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Huge Shoes To Fill For Ottis Gibson
Gibson and co will have to fill the big shoes of Gautam Gambhir's management under whose mentorship, the Knight Riders won their third IPL title. He has to bring in all his experience of his coaching stint to maintain his success at KKR. With Pandit and Bravo alongside him, Gibson should ease into his role quickly.
After winning the IPL title with KKR in IPL 2024, Gambhir was offered the role as the head coach of the Indian cricket team. He took his entire support staff along with him. Abhishek Nayar and Ryan ten Doeschate subsequently joined Gambhir with the Indian team.
Gambhir's start as India head coach was not a good one. Test series losses against New Zealand at home and Australia Down Under were two of his toughest assignments. However, he turned it around as coach by coaching India to their third Champions Trophy title win in Dubai.
He is now focusing on winning India's next Test series against England in June. The series starts from June 20 and Gambhir as per reports in Times of India is planning to travel to England along with India A who will play three four-day matches against the England Lions.
Also Read: CSK IPL 2025 Schedule: Chennai Super Kings Matches, Fixtures and Where to Buy Tickets?