The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) who are the current defending champions of the Indian Premier League (IPL) are reportedly in talks with Kumar Sangakkara for the mentorship role ahead of the IPL 2025 season.
The Knight Riders who were crowned the champions of the 2024 season, had defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad in the final, in the same year that Gautam Gambhir, who is also a former two-time IPL winning KKR captain, had rejoined the franchise, as a mentor.
However, with success, the BCCI and Indian team came calling and Gambhir accepted the offer to take up the prestigious role of becoming India's next head coach, succeeding from Rahul Dravid, under whom the team had won the T20 World Cup 2024.
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Will Kumar Sangakkara replace Gautam Gambhir as KKR mentor ahead of the IPL 2025 season?
Neither the franchise nor the former Sri Lanka cricketer has so far come public about the information, however, according to the local Kolkata-based Telegraph India sources there has been reports that KKR have in talks with Sangakkara, eyeing him as a replacement for former mentor Gambhir.
The Telegraph report stated that "Sangakkara, who has been the director of cricket at Rajasthan Royals since 2021, has decided to part ways with the franchise."
"It was learnt that KKR are in advanced talks with Sangakkara who is also considering offers from some other franchises. A decision is likely to be reached in the next few days," the report additionally stated.
In other news, the Rajasthan franchise were also in advanced talks to bring back the former India head coach Dravid back as the franchise's head coach alongside Vikram Rathour (batting coach) ahead of the 2025 season.
KKR on the other hand, currently has Chandrakant Pandit as head coach and Bharat Arun as bowling coach. However, they will have to recruit a new batting and fielding coach as Abhishek Nayar and Ryan Ten Doeschate have left the franchise to join up as a part of Gambhir's support staff at the Indian national team.
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