IPL Franchise Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) on Sunday announced Brad Hodge as their head coach for the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Former India pacer Venkatesh Prasad, who recently quit as the chairman of the junior selection committee, will be their bowling coach.

Heading into the IPL 2018 auction, KXIP retained only one player – India all-rounder Axar Patel. Ravichandran Ashwin was bought for Rs 7.6 crore and was also handed the captaincy. Kings XI Punjab also roped in the likes of Chris Gayle, Yuvraj Singh, KL Rahul, Aaron Finch, Mujeeb Zadran, Karun Nair and Andrew Tye. In a release, KXIP informed that Hodge, who retired from all formats of cricket following illness in February will take over as the head coach of the team while Virender Sehwag will be carrying out two different roles -- director of cricket operations and team’s mentor.

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 read.

Mithun Manhas will act as the assistant coach. Nishant Thakur will serve as the conditioning coach, Shyamal Vallabhjee will be the technical coach while ishanta Bordoloi will be the fielding coach.