Kolkata Knight Riders Part Ways With IPL-Winning Head Coach Chandrakant Pandit
We wish you the best for your future endeavours, Chandu Sir
PS: Once a Knight, always a Knight. Kolkata will always be your home pic.twitter.com/GF0LxX5fIz
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) July 29, 2025
"Mr. Chandrakant Pandit has decided to explore new opportunities and will not continue as Head Coach of Kolkata Knight Riders," the franchise said in a statement.
"We are thankful for his invaluable contributions - including leading KKR to the IPL Championship in 2024 and helping build a strong, resilient squad. His leadership and discipline have left a lasting impact on the team. We wish him all the very best for the future," the statement further said.
Pandit was appointed as head coach of the Knight Riders in August 2022, looking ahead to the 2023 season. A serial winner in Indian domestic cricket, Pandit could only manage a seventh-place finish in IPL 2023, with then-team captain Shreyas Iyer missing the season due to injury.
Upon the return of Iyer as captain and Gautam Gambhir as team mentor, Pandit steered KKR to a dominant title win in IPL 2024. KKR set a record for the most number of points achieved in a single season in the franchise's history, and also set the record for the highest net-run-rate (NRR) achieved by any IPL team in a league season.
However, following the mega auction, KKR went on to have a season to forget in IPL 2025. The franchise finished in eight spot, their joint-worst in IPL history. KKR won only five out of their 14 league games in IPL 2025, crashing out of playoff contention with two games remaining.
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