Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Kings XI Punjab on Wednesday (December 13) has named former Australia batsman Brad Hodge as their head coach for the next three year.

As per the reports in ESPNcricinfo, Hodge, who was a chief mentor of Gujarat Lions side for the last two seasons of IPL, will now report to KXIP mentor turned director of cricket, Virender Sehwag.

In order to avoid the conflict of interest, India’s assistant coach Sanjay Bangar had resigned from his post of KXIP head coach in December 2016. Since then the head coach's job was informally held by Sehwag.

The 42-year-old Hodge continues to feature as an active player in T20 leagues all around the world. He will be playing for Melbourne Renegades in 2017-18 Big Bash League (BBL) before joining the Punjab franchise as the chief coach.

"We have signed a three-year agreement with Brad, who will be our head coach," Kings XI Punjab co-owner Ness Wadia was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

"Viru (Sehwag) will be actively involved, too, as our director of cricket," he added.

As far as Hodge’s international cricket career is concerned – the Victoria born cricketer has represented Australia in 6 Tests, 25 ODIs and 15 T20Is. He used to be deemed as a cricket giant in Australasia’s first-class cricketing circle. Hodge has amassed 17084 first-class runs in 223 matches at an impressive average of 48.81, with 51 tons and 64 fifties.