IPL 2024: RCB appoints Andy Flower, SRH Daniel Vettori and LSG ropes in Justin Langer as their head coach. What to expect from them?
IPL 2024 season is more than 7 months from commencement, but lately it has been in the headlines for more than one reason. The personnel change with respect to the team management for certain franchises has been figuring in the headlines in the past few days.
The franchises in question are Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). All these three teams have changed their respective head coaches ahead of the next year’s IPL. This comes a couple of months before player retention as well as mini-auctions, so that it will give the new coaching staff much needed time to analyse the overall composition of the sides.
Of the three sides that have announced changes in their staff, Lucknow Super Giants have sprung a surprise. This is because, LSG have reached the playoffs on both occasions they have played the IPL (2022 and 2023), and both the times, former Zimbabwe cricketer and legend Andy Flower was the head coach. LSG did admirably well finishing in the top 3 in both seasons and were arguably the most consistent side after the Gujarat Titans in the last seasons.
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Justin Langer – Lucknow Super Giants
The only blemish on their part is the lack of IPL triumph and before the next season, LSG announced they are parting ways with Flower and have appointed former Australia Test opener Justin Langer as their head coach for the upcoming season.
What does Justin Langer bring to the table?
The legendary Aussie opener is known to be a hard task master and definitely knows a thing or two about winning championships. He was part of one of Australia’s strongest ever Test teams during his playing days and post that began coaching sides.
Langer was the head coach of the Perth Scorchers from 2012 until the 2015-16 season and during his realm, the Perth team won the BBL title twice. He then became the head coach of the Australian cricket team post the 2018 sandpaper gate and played a key role in lifting the national team once again from an all-time downward spiral.
Australian cricket was facing a tough time when he took over with multiple players leaving and the side losing more often than usual. But Langer once again brought the winning mindset as he helped the team win the T20 World Cup in 2021 and lifted the team to the top of the rankings in Tests.
What is expected out of him?
Langer is expected to make the LSG go one step further and win their maiden IPL trophy. He will most likely have the talented KL Rahul as the captain of the ship and together they will have a task to bring home the coveted IPL trophy.
Andy Flower – Royal Challengers Bangalore
Royal Challengers Bangalore have appointed Andy Flower as their head coach for the coming season. He will take over from the outgoing coach Sanjay Bangar who had a decent association with the RCB.
RCB, despite not winning the IPL trophy, have been a consistent side over the past few seasons. RCB reached the playoffs in three of the last four seasons and one good thing they did was to retain the core. The 2023 season didn’t go as per plan as they finished 6th and this might have prompted the team management to look further from Bangar.
Flower is one of the most accomplished coaches in the cricketing circuit, having served as the coach of England’s national team from 2009 to 2014. His resume includes winning a T20 World Cup with England (2009) and taking the Test team to a position of strength both home and away, with three Ashes wins in his kitty.
Flower then shifted his focus to coaching in franchise cricket, where he guided the Multan Sultans to a PSL title in 2021 and in International League T20 where he won with Gulf Titans. He also found success as a coach with CPL side Zouks before embarking his journey with IPL. He served as an assistant coach of PBKS (2021) and head coach of LSG in 2022 and 2023.
He will now be the coach of the RCB and he will be expected to bring all his wealth of experience to lead the RCB to a coveted IPL title, something which has eluded them for the last 16 years. RCB will hope that Flower forms a great partnership with skipper Faf du Plessis in the coming edition.
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Daniel Vettori – Sunrisers Hyderabad
The third franchise that has changed their head coach is the Sunrisers and they now welcome the former New Zealand all-rounder and spin legend Daniel Vettori as their head coach. Vettori will replace the West Indies great Brian Lara as the head coach of SRH.
Vettori, like others mentioned above, is a veteran of the game and has a great deal of experience as a coach. He was the head coach of the RCB team from 2014 to 2018 before serving as the spin bowling coach for Bangladesh. Vettori was also the assistant coach of the Australian national team and continued his duties in the recently concluded Ashes series as well.
Vettori is expected to bring a fresh lease of life to the SRH team after poor performances in the last few years. His first task would be to exude confidence on the team that has failed to reach the playoffs in each of the last three seasons and put a great performance together. He didn’t have a pleasant memory coaching RCB, and SRH will hope Vettori’s second stint at IPL coaching will be a memorable one for the franchise.
IPL 2023 Standings
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