In a significant decision made by the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), the three-time IPL champions have appointed Abhishek Nayar as their new head coach ahead of the IPL 2026 auction. Nayar will take the position vacated by the exit of Chandrakant Pandit.
KKR and Panditâ€s relationship ended after a disappointing IPL 2025 season, where the IPL 2024 champions—who were without their title-winning skipper Shreyas Iyer and mentor Gautam Gambhir—finished eighth in the points table under Ajinkya Rahane and Pandit.
Nayar, who played three ODIs for India, 103 first-class matches, 99 List-A games, and 60 IPL matches, has become a high-profile name in the coaching circuit over the past 6-7 years.
The 42-year-old Abhishek Nayar has been part of the KKR setup for a long time. While he never played for KKR in the IPL, he was made the head coach of the KKR academy in 2018 and then joined their IPL teamâ€s support staff.
Nayar was the coach of the Trinbago Knight Riders, KKRâ€s sister franchise, in CPL 2022.
He was an assistant coach at the KKR franchise under head coaches Brendon McCullum and Chandrakant Pandit and mentor Gambhir in the victorious IPL 2024 season.
As Gambhir moved to take the reins of the Indian team, Nayar also tagged along as one of the two assistant coaches to Gambhir, with Ryan ten Doeschate being the other, who had also been with Gambhir during his captaincy tenure at KKR.
Nayar, though, was sacked from the Indian team after a BCCI review following Indiaâ€s Test series defeats against New Zealand at home and in the BGT 2024-25 in Australia.
He was then quickly appointed as an assistant coach by KKR ahead of the IPL 2025 season. After that, he was roped in by the UP Warriorz as their head coach in the Womenâ€s Premier League (WPL).
IPL 2026: Who Is The New KKR Head Coach?
Assistant coach Abhishek Nayar has now gained a promotion at the franchise as he becomes the new KKR Head Coach
Nayar is a highly respected and recognized figure in the Indian coaching circuit. Not as a coach, but for having mentored and earned praise from the likes of Rohit Sharma, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, and Dinesh Karthik, who have often eulogized Nayar for his role in helping them with mental and physical conditioning, leading to improvement in their on-field performances.
There are a couple more appointments to be made by KKR in their coaching department, as bowling consultant Bharat Arun and spin-bowling consultant Carl Crowe have moved on to Lucknow Super Giants.
Meanwhile, the IPL 2026 auction is not too far away, and the BCCI is soon expected to announce the dates for the auction and retention deadlines. Among the big names that KKR is expected to release is Venkatesh Iyer, the all-rounder whom they bought for INR 23.75 crore in the last auction. The left-hander managed only 142 runs last season and was dropped after 11 games.
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