Punjab Kings Bid Farewell to Bayliss and Bangar

The Punjab Kings have decided to part ways with Trevor Bayliss and Sanjay Bangar, their head coach and head of cricket development, in IPL 2024. According to sources from ESPNcricinfo, the franchise board, which includes the four co-owners, made this decision recently.

The development is a part of Kings revamping their coaching staff. Earlier this month, they appointed Ricky Ponting as their new head coach.

While Bayliss took over as Kings head coach after IPL 2022, Bangar joined the franchise in December 2023. Kings, who have never won the IPL, finished eighth in 2023 and ninth last season.

Incidentally, Bangar's first stint with Kings, in 2014, was as their head coach, a position he served in till the end of 2016. Post that, he was appointed India's assistant coach. In 2021, he joined Royal Challengers Bangalore as their batting consultant before being promoted to the head coach's role. In December 2023, he rejoined Kings.

Bayliss had replaced former India captain Anil Kumble, who was the franchise's head coach from 2020 to 2022. In a desperate search for the winning formula, Kings have constantly churned out coaches in the last decade.

Kumble was the fifth coach Kings had appointed in five seasons after Sanjay Bangar (2014-16), Virender Sehwag (2017), Brad Hodge (2018) and Mike Hesson (2019).

Recently, Kings signed former Australian captain Ponting for a four-year contract (2025-28). In an interview with ESPNcricinfo, Ponting said, "The biggest thing that I want to do at Punjab Kings is make everyone aware that it's going to be a different place. We are not going to sit back and just accept mediocrity and finish down the bottom and have other people sit back and talk about the way the franchise is going. It is going to be more dynamic. And people are going to be talking about this team and this franchise in a different way than ever before."