Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], March 8 (ANI): Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) announced Ottis Gibson as assistant coach ahead of the 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL), according to a release from KKR.

A former fast bowler from Barbados himself, with over 650 first-class wickets to his name, Ottis represented West Indies in both Tests and ODIs from 1995-1999 before embarking on his journey as a coach. He comes with extensive experience, having had two stints as bowling coach of the England Cricket Team - from 2007-10 and again from 2015-17.

He served as head coach of the West Indies from 2010-14. During his tenure, the team won its first ICC World T20 title, in 2012 in Sri Lanka. He went on to become head coach of the South African team from 2017-2019 and has since held several coaching positions across the T20 franchise circuit.

Ottis joins a strong support staff unit at KKR, comprising mentor Dwayne Bravo, head coach Chandrakant Pandit, bowling coach Bharat Arun, spin-bowling coach Carl Crowe and others.

Last year in November, he was the coach of Ajman Bolts in the Abu Dhabi T10 League.

The Kolkata Knight Riders will kick off their IPL 2025 campaign against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru on March 22 at the iconic Eden Gardens.

KKR squad for IPL 2025:

-Batters: Rinku Singh (retained), Rovman Powell, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Luvnith Sisodia, Ajinkya Rahane.

-Wicketkeepers: Quinton de Kock, Rahmanullah Gurbaz.

-Allrounders: Venkatesh Iyer (pace), Andre Russell (pace; retained), Sunil Narine (spin; retained), Ramandeep Singh (pace; retained), Anukul Roy (spin), Moeen Ali (spin).

-Spinners: Varun Chakravarthy (retained), Mayank Markande.

-Fast bowlers: Harshit Rana (retained), Vaibhav Arora, Anrich Nortje, Spencer Johnson, Umran Malik. (ANI)