After bringing in Brendon McCullum as the head coach, Kolkata Knight Riders have added David Hussey and Kyle Mills as the chief mentor and as bowling coach respectively for the 2020 IPL season.
The announcement was made on Saturday, as part of an overall revamp of the Knight Riders backroom. Franchise CEO Venky Mysore said in a statement, “It’s great to welcome David Hussey and Kyle Mills to the Knight Riders Family. They bring a wealth of experience as professionals, and are terrific individuals. We are confident that their contribution as part of the think tank of KKR, and to the KKR Academy, will be invaluable.”
Hussey is a former Knight Riders player, having represented the franchise in 23 games between 2008 and 2010 during the course of a glittering T20 career in which he played 267 matches, scoring 6097 runs and picking up 68 wickets.
Apart from turning out for Australia 39 times, 42-year-old Hussey plied his trade in leagues in his own country for the Melbourne Stars, in the West Indies, New Zealand and Australia, apart from playing in the IPL with Knight Riders, Chennai Super Kings and Kings XI Punjab.
Former New Zealand paceman Mills, meanwhile, remains at No. 2 behind Daniel Vettori in the list of his country’s highest wicket-takers in ODI cricket – 240 from 170 games – despite retiring in 2015. The 40-year-old paceman also played 98 T20s – 42 of them internationally – for 105 wickets.
Mills replaced Omkar Salvi, the team’s bowling coach till last season.
Back in mid-July this year, following a fifth-place finish in IPL 2019, Knight Riders parted ways with head coach Jacques Kallis and assistant coach Simon Katich, and appointed McCullum as the chief coach, for the Kolkata franchise as well as the owners’ team in the Caribbean Premier League, Trinbago knight Riders.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo