The Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) have parted ways with Zimbabwe’s Andy Flower after two seasons of him being the head coach of the franchise in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and have appointed Australia’s Justin Langer as his replacement.
As the two-year contract of Andy Flower came to an end, Lucknow Super Giants thanked Andy Flower for his contribution.
“Dear Andy, Today it's farewell, but it'll never be goodbye because you'll always be one of our own. Thank you for everything!”, the franchise posted on Twitter.
Under Flower as head coach, Gautam Gambhir as mentor, and KL Rahul as captain, LSG qualified for the playoffs in both IPL 2022 and IPL 2023. Though in the later half of the tournament in IPL 2023, Krunal Pandya took over the captaincy after Rahul was injured and could take no further part.
The former Australia opener, Justin Langer, who also served as the head coach of Australia, will take over from Flower ahead of the next season of IPL in 2024.
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“Justin Langer was appointed as the coach of the Australian cricket team in May 2018. During his tenure, Australia captured the title by defeating England 4–0 in the Ashes series. Not only this, but in the year 2021, during Langer's tenure, Australia also won the T20 World Cup for the first time. Apart from this, Perth Scorchers also won the Big Bash title three times under the guidance of Langer,” LSG said in a statement on their website.
On joining LSG as head coach, Justin Langer said, “Lucknow Super Giants are on the journey of building a great story in the IPL. We all have a role to play in that journey and I am excited to be a part of the team moving forward.”
Langer will have his task cut out in steering the KL Rahul-led side from next season. This will be the decorated Australia cricketers' first assignment with an IPL franchise.
(LSG website inputs)