New Delhi: Indian Premier League (IPL) team Kings XI Punjab have appointed former Australian pacer Ryan Harris as their bowling coach. The 39-year-old has replaced Venkatesh Prasad who had resigned recently from the position. The Punjab-based team also roped in former New Zealand batsman Craig McMillan as their fielding coach.
Team’s head coach Mike Hesson said that the inclusion of Harris and McMillan in the coaching team would prove to be an asset for them. “Having quality coaches like Harris and McMillan will be a great asset to the team. They have both performed as players on the big stage and have made the transition into quality coaches. They will be excellent additions to the coaching team,” Kings XI Punjab official website quoted Hesson, as saying.
The franchise, which finished at number 7 in the last edition of the IPL, made some other appointments in order to increase the strength of their support staff. While former Australian cricketer Brett Harrop has been appointed as the team physio, Sridharan Sriram and Prasanna Raman have been roped in as batting coach and high-performance coach, respectively.
Former India cricket team analyst Ashish Tuli, team veterans Varoon Parmar and Nishant Thakur, Masseur Naresh Kumar and Assistant Team Manager Vikram Hastir will continue to impart their services in the 2019 edition of the tournaments, as well.
Kings XI Punjab is left with highest salary cap among all the teams in the IPL after releasing eleven players including Yuvraj Singh, Aaron Finch, Axar Patel. The franchise also traded Australian all rounder Marcus Stoinis for Royal Challenger Bangalore’s Mandeep Singh for the next edition of the tournament.