Gujarat Titans achieved a historic feat on Sunday at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad as they lifted the IPL 2022 trophy. While skipper Hardik Pandya was the hero who led his side on the field, off the field, it was head coach Ashish Nehra, who played a crucial role in GT’s triumph.
Courtesy of his side’s IPL 2022 victory, Nehra, the former left-arm pacer broke a 14-year-long pattern as he became the first Indian head coach to lead his side to an IPL win.
Before him, all of the teams that prevailed in IPL so far, have had foreign head coaches, but Nehra etched his name in the history, by doing what nobody had managed to do before him.
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Furthermore, Ashish Nehra achieved another historic feat as he became only the third cricketer to have won the IPL trophy both as a player and as a head coach, after Shane Warne and Ricky Ponting.
For the unversed, Nehra plied his trade for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and won the IPL title as a player with SRH in 2016, under David Warner’s captaincy.
Earlier, Shane Warne, who acted as both player and coach for Rajasthan Royals (RR) in 2008 had become the first cricketer to do so, followed by Ricky Ponting who won the IPL trophy as a player with Mumbai Indians (MI) in 2013, before going on to lead them to their second IPL title in 2015, as a head coach.
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Meanwhile, Gujarat Titans became only the second team after Rajasthan Royals to lift the IPL title in their maiden IPL campaign, having only joined the cash-rich league earlier this year, alongside fellow debutants Lucknow Super Giants (LSG).
GT skipper Hardik Pandya delivered a ‘Man of the Match’ performance as he picked up three wickets, while also contributing with the bat to lead his side from the front.
On Monday, Gujarat Titans hosted a roadshow in Ahmedabad to celebrate their maiden IPL title.
