IPL 2018 | Venkatesh Prasad appointed as KXIP bowling coach

Kings XI Punjab has a brilliant support staff at its helm to boast off after the franchise had a promising auction in January. After bagging in the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin, Aaron Finch, Chris Gayle, Marcus Stoinis, and Andrew Tye, KXIP have roped in Australia’s Brad Hodge as the assistant coach and now India’s former veteran bowler Prasad.

"Venkatesh Prasad, former right-arm medium-fast bowler and ex-chairman of the junior national selection committee (BCCI) comes on board as the teams bowling coach," Kings XI Punjab said in a statement. 

“Aggregating more than 7,000 runs in this format of the game, he (Brad Hodge) is sure to shake things up for Kings XI Punjab and will lead the team forward under the guidance of Virender Sehwag who will serve as the Director- Cricket Operations and Team Mentor for this season of the IPL,” the release further read.

Prasad was the chief of the junior national selection panel of BCCI until yesterday, playing an important role in forming a core for the ICC Under-19 World Cup and his effort culminated in India winning the Junior World Cup in New Zealand, last month.

Prasad boasts of a lot of coaching experience at a major level and was at the helm of the affairs when India U-19 team reached the finals in 2006. The former Karnataka bowler was also the bowling coach of the Indian senior team, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Chennai Super Kings and his home state, Karnataka.

Speaking about Prasad's appointment, Sehwag said "We are glad to have a foreign coach join the team this year along with Venkatesh. I hope the team benefits hugely from their collective experiences."