Reports: Lucknow franchise ropes in Andy Flower as head coach ahead of IPL 2022

In what can be called a major development, Andy Flower will be the head coach of the Lucknow-based franchise in the 2022 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). For the unversed, the gala T20 tournament is set to expand next season with two new teams coming in the picture. Hence, a total of 10 teams will feature in the 14th season instead of 8.

While the names of the teams aren’t final yet, Lucknow and Ahmedabad have been finalized as base cities. Coming to the massive development, former Zimbabwe cricketer Andy Flower would serve the Lucknow team as the head coach. It was earlier reported that Flower was competing with former New Zealand captain Daniel Vettor for the position.

Andy Flower set to join Lucknow team

However, renowned journalist  K Shriniwas Rao confirmed that Flower has been finalized for the position. “Andy Flower will coach Lucknow. We’ll know more about Ahmedabad next week,” he tweeted on Thursday (December 16). One of the finest cricketers to have represented Zimbabwe, Flower has proved his mettle in the mentorship department as well.

Andy Flower will coach Lucknow. We'll know more about Ahmedabad next week.

— KSR (@KShriniwasRao) December 16, 2021

Hence, the franchise owners would be pretty happy getting the veteran on board. Meanwhile, several media reports also suggested that KL Rahul is likely to be signed by one of the two new teams and Lucknow are leading the race to get him on board as captain for the 2022 season. It must be noted that Rahul parted ways with Punjab Kings, whom he led in the past two seasons.

Notably, PBKS head coach Anil Kumble had stated that his side wanted to retain Rahul but the 29-year-old made himself unavailable. It must be noted that the eight existing franchises finalized their retention list last month. They were allowed to retain a maximum of four players, out of which only two can be foreign retentions.

As far as the two new teams are concerned, they now can pick a maximum of three players from the list of non-retained players. The likes of KL Rahul, Rashid Khan, Shreyas Iyer and Ben Stokes are the front-runners to get contracts from the new franchises. Hence, these players might not land in the auction pool.