Chandrakant Pandit has been a very successful coach at the domestic level. His record, may I say, speaks for itself. But come the IPL, he hasn’t been able to replicate his domestic success, and that’s what explains KKR’s plight in 2025. The question to ask is: why? Why would Pandit not be able to do the job at IPL level, and why is it that he has to leave at the end of the season?
At the domestic level, Pandit hasn’t really managed big egos or huge success stories. Teams that he has coached have had stars, yes, but not an alpha male in that sense in the change room. At the IPL level, every team has multiple such alpha males with big egos and serious international success behind them. Pandit’s coaching style, more suited for the younger cricketers and for the ones who are making a mark at the national level, isn’t really suited to stars like Andre Russell. You don’t just dictate to these stars, you manage them. You have to deal with egos and ensure you get the best out of them. When Ravi Shasti was coach of the Indian team, for example, he got the best out of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. That’s what added to his CV as coach, and that’s where Pandit has fallen short.
Was he overawed? Was it not a comfortable co-existence? While we will not have answers to these questions, suffice to say Gautam Gambhir did manage the team well as mentor, and that’s what explains KKR’s success in 2024. While I continue to maintain that KKR are a very good side, I do think that man-management skills are lacking at the moment, and that’s what has led me to repeatedly say that Pandit has to go.
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What the Pandit case also highlights is the difference between the IPL and domestic cricket. While the IPL is also a domestic competition, the presence of every international star makes it fundamentally different when compared to the Ranji Trophy, for example. That’s what Pandit couldn’t really deal with, and that’s what KKR couldn’t really envisage when they made this appointment.
So what’s the way forward from here on for the franchise? I’d say all that KKR needs are some minor tweaks. A stronger head coach, one of profile, to hold the dressing room together is a necessity. While the name of Eoin Morgan is doing the rounds, there are many stars around who could do the job with perfection. Getting the batting order right is the second thing, and once that happens, there is no reason why 2026 will not be different.
For Pandit, however, it is time to go back to the drawing board. Work out why he couldn’t replicate his domestic success at the IPL level, and maybe mend his ways and try and make a comeback to the IPL in the future. To put it bluntly – while there has been no announcement from KKR yet, I’d be extremely surprised if Pandit lasted even a month after the conclusion of IPL 2025. In a ruthless, cutthroat competition, that’s how things are and always will be.
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