KOLKATA Knight Riders is all set to appoint Abhishek Nayar as their head coach for the forthcoming season. The Indian Express understands that Nayar was told about the franchise’s decision last week and a formal announcement is expected to be made soon. Nayar had joined the IPL franchise last year as support staff after he was removed as assistant coach of the Indian team.
The former Mumbai all-rounder had earlier worked for KKR and was their main man behind the scenes, taking care of grooming players in the academy. While the franchise parted ways with their head coach Chandrakant Pandit, the Kolkata team had recently zeroed in on Nayar’s name as his replacement. KKR had an ordinary IPL 2025 season where they failed to qualify for the play-offs. They managed to win only five games from their 14 league matches.
The 42-year-old taking the top job is no surprise. After being sacked as Team India’s assistant coach, Nayar quickly returned to KKR and joined the franchise’s support staff.
Earlier this year, Nayar also took on the head coach role for the Women’s Premier League (WPL) franchise UP Warriorz. It will be interesting to see if he will continue to hold head coaching positions with two different franchises in separate leagues simultaneously.
