Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) has today, on the 17th of August, announced the appointment of the former India international cricketer Chandrakant Pandit as the team’s head coach for the upcoming season in 2023 as a replacement of Brendan McCullum, who has joined as England Test team’s Head Coach.
Now, many are unaware of who really is Chandrakant Pandit. It must not be a question you will hear from cricket enthusiasts who follows the Indian domestic cricket, such as the Ranji Trophy, Syed Mushtaq Ali and Vijay Hazare Trophy.
Chandrakant Pandit is a Bombay (now Mumbai) born cricketer who played for the Indian cricket team between the 1986 and 1992. He was a wicketkeeper batsman during his playing days. He was also part of the Indian team’s squad for the 1987 World Cup.
Pandit was not so very successful for the Indian team. He played 5 Test matches and 36 ODI matches in his career and scored 171 and 290 runs respectively. However, he has been really successful as a coach though.
He has won several Ranji Trophies in his career coaching various teams, such as the Mumbai cricket team and the also guiding the Vidarbha team to back-to-back title in 2018 and 2019. And now most recently, he helped his former team Madhya Pradesh to win the Ranji Trophy in 2022, the same team he captained in 1999 but unfortunately, Madhya Pradesh lost the match.
This will be the first time that the veteran cricketer has been given a task of leading a T20 franchise like the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), who have won the IPL twice. This sure won’t be an easy job, but his records in domestic cricket proves that he could well.
Pandit has not only won Trophies with the teams, but he has build a strong core of the team he has managed on his career. This sure a big task for him, but with all his experience, KKR expects and he will be able to guide the team to victory and also build the next generation.