In a big IPL news, former Australia head coach Justin Langer is close to becoming the new head coach of the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) IPL franchise from next season.
Cricbuzz has reported that 52-year-old Justin Langer has had multiple rounds of discussions with the LSG owners and technical staff and is likely to replace Andy Flower as the franchise’s new head coach from IPL 2024.
Justin Langer will partner Gautam Gambhir at LSG In IPL 2024
Gambhir has been LSG’s mentor for the past two seasons.
Andy Flower and Gautam Gambhir coached LSG to playoffs in both the seasons, in 2022 and 2023, both the times the KL Rahul-led side finished 3rd in the points table, however, they lost both times in the Eliminator, two steps away from the final.
Other coaching staff, though, is likely to be retained by LSG. Morne Morkel is LSG’s bowling coach, Jonty Rhodes is the fielding coach and Vijay Dahiya is the assistant coach.
Langer has an impressive CV as a head coach.
He had guided the Perth Scorchers to three Big Bash League titles in the first four years. Then he took over the head coach role of the Australian team amid the Sandpapergate saga in 2018. He helped the team come out of the Sandpapergate fiasco. In 2019, Australia retained the Ashes in England for the first time in 18 years, and also reached the semis of the 2019 WC. In 2021, Justin Langer coached Australia to their first-ever T20 World Cup title in the UAE. In 2021/22, Australia hammered England 4-0 at home.
After that, though, there was an unceremonious exit by Langer as the strife between him and his players grew bigger with the players reportedly not happy about Langer’s hard-task master character and not being on the same page with some of his coaching methods.
Cricbuzz has also reported that apart from LSG, other franchises who failed to reach the playoffs might also look for a change in head coach, though KKR are committed to Chandrakant Pandit.
