The Kolkata Knight Riders appointed Chandrakant Pandit as head coach of the IPL team on Wednesday. Pandit, who has had a successful coaching career with multiple domestic teams, recently guided Madhya Pradesh to their maiden Ranji Trophy title.
Chandrakant Pandit replaces Brendon McCullum at the head coach. The post was vacant as Brendon McCullum has taken over as England's head coach in Test cricket.
KKR are two-time IPL champions and also finished runners-up in 2021. They finished 7th on the points table in the 2022 edition of the tournament.
Making the announcement, Venky Mysore, CEO of KKR said, "We are very excited that Chandu is joining the Knight Riders family to lead us through the next phase of our journey. His deep commitment to what he does and his track record of success in domestic cricket, is there for everyone to see. We are looking forward to his partnership with our skipper Shreyas Iyer, which promises to be an exciting one."
Accepting the new challenge, Chandrakant Pandit said, "It's a great honour and privilege to be given this responsibility. I have heard from players and others who have been associated with the Knight Riders, about the family culture, as well as the tradition of success that has been created. I am excited about the quality of the support staff and the players who are part of the set up and I am looking forward to this opportunity with all humility and positive expectations."
A wicket-keeper batter, Pandit had represented India in five Tests and 36 ODIs. Pandit scored more than 8,000 runs in first-class cricket at an average in excess of 48.
Besides Madhya Pradesh, Pandit coached the Vidarbha and Mumbai domestic teams as well. He also guided the Vidarbha team to the Ranji Trophy title in 2018 and 2019.