On Wednesday, August 28, former Indian pacer Zaheer Khan was named as the new mentor of Lucknow Super Giants. He replaces his former India teammate Gautam Gambhir, who was the franchise’s previous mentor. He is currently the head coach of the Indian team.
Morne Morkel will now partner Gautam Gambhir as the bowling coach of the Indian team. After the T20 World Cup 2024, Gambhir was named as the next head coach after Rahul Dravid’s tenure ended.
Meanwhile, Zaheer Khan said after being appointed mentor that the real reason he joined LSG was because they share the same view on the game.
Zaheer Khan further said that his decision making was smooth and fast as the overall goal was the same.
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Decision Was Quick and Easy: Zaheer Khan on joining LSG
“As soon as possible! If I have to answer in short words, I called, I realized that we (LSG management) are very like-minded people about cricket, how cricket should be played at franchise level and how Cricketing culture should be built in a franchise very, very fast and smooth, ” Zaheer said in an interaction with Cricbuzz.
He later spoke about working with the likes of Mohsin Khan and Mayank Yadav. Both have had injury-plagued careers so far. Mayank was the find of the IPL earlier this year, but his frequent injuries meant he could only play in four matches, scoring seven wickets. Mohsin was also among those found for LSG, but he too has had an injury-prone career.
In the same interaction, Zaheer Khan spoke about working with the two youngsters if they are retained by the franchise. It is learned that Zahir will participate in scouting and player development programs in the offseason.
“Every year you find talent. Every year you see someone shine bright that’s a total unknown quantity. I look forward to it. I think that’s one of the reasons I want to be at this shelter.
“I want to be a part of this set-up. I want to interact with the players and share my knowledge, hopefully it will help them go the distance in some way,” Zaheer said as he nursed the two youngsters.
Zaheer had a very successful international career for India. He collected 311 Test wickets, 283 ODI wickets and 17 T20I wickets. He was a rare left-arm pacer to play for India for more than a decade.
Zaheer Khan played 100 matches in his IPL career playing for franchises like Royal Challengers Bangalore, Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals. He led the Delhi franchise for several seasons and played his last IPL game in 2017.
Prior to joining LSG, Zaheer Khan worked as director of cricket with Mumbai Indians before taking on the role of head of global development.
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