West Indies batting legend Brian Lara named the head coach of Sunrisers Hyderabad

Hyderabad 3rd Sep : West Indies batting legend Brian Lara on Saturday was appointed the head coach of the 2016 IPL champions Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Lara served as the strategic advisor and the batting coach of the Sunrisers in the 2022 IPL season succeeds Tom Moody for the top spot in the coming seasons of the tournament.

"The legend of cricket Brian Lara will be our head coach for the coming #IPL seasons" the franchise announced on their official social media profiles.Rumours were circulating in the media from Fridays announcement that Moody was not going to return to serve as Sunrisers coach in the upcoming IPL seasons, and that he along with the franchise had parted ways in a mutual agreement.

Moody was appointed recently director of cricket for the Glazers family-owned Desert Vipers, which is one of the six franchises in the forthcoming ILT20 in the UAE which is scheduled to start from January 2023.Moodys first stint as coach in charge of the Sunrisers was from 2013 until 2019.

Under his guidance, Hyderabad reached the playoffs five times and also won the IPL for the first time in the year 2016.In the year 2020, Moody was replaced by fellow Australian Trevor Bayliss as head coach in 2020.

However, in 2021, Moody returned to the franchise as director of cricket with Bayliss still in charge as the coach in charge.When Bayliss quit the job following a disappointing 2021 IPL season in which the Sunrisers ended up in last place in the table of points with just three wins Moody was appointed again as the head coach.

Moodys return as head coach of the Sunrisers in IPL 2022 wont alter their fortunes.Sunrisers placed eighth in the tournament with 10 teams with six wins and eight losses.

In the beginning of the year, Sunrisers seemed to be getting into the playoffs on the off of winning five games in consecutive matches.But, in the second half of the tournament they faced five consecutive losses which resulted in them not being able to make the playoffs.

Captain Kane Williamson was not at his best with the bat, and injuries to key Indian players such as Washington Sundar and T Natarajan in crucial junctures of the tournament caused disruption to their equilibrium of the eleven players.nr/ak.