Mahela in new role as coach of Mumbai Indians

Mahela Jayawardene, one of the most successful T20 coaches in the world, and Zaheer Khan 

Mahela Jayawardene has stepped down as the Mumbai Indians head coach in order to take up a broader role as the franchise’s global head of performance. In his new position, Jayawardene will oversee the coaching and scouting at all the three teams the franchise owners now have - Mumbai Indians in the IPL, MI Emirates in the ILT20 and MI Cape Town in the SA 20.

Mumbai Indians have also made Zaheer Khan, earlier the director of cricket operations, the head of cricket development for the three teams. It is not yet clear if the franchise will appoint a new head coach for the IPL team, a job Jayawardene has performed since the 2017 edition of the IPL, overseeing three title wins.

The streamlining of the top roles in the coaching staff came after the Mumbai Indians owners bought the two new teams.

The ILT20 and the SA20 will both have their inaugural seasons in January-February next year. The owners felt that the changed circumstances needed one person in charge of the coaching arm globally, a role that best suited Jayawardene because of his extensive experience as an international player and captain, as well as a coach in franchise T20 cricket.

In the IPL, Jayawardene has been the second-most successful coach after Stephen Fleming, who has been with Chennai Super Kings since 2009, winning four IPL trophies with them. The Jayawardene-Rohit Sharma [Mumbai Indians captain] combine has made three IPL playoffs in six seasons and remarkably, won the title each time. They are the only team with five IPL titles and the only team apart from Super Kings to successfully defend the title, in 2020.

Jayawardene and Zaheer have worked closely since the latter joined the support staff at Mumbai Indians in 2018. In 91 matches since then, Mumbai Indians’ win-loss ratio of 1.289 has been the best among the original eight IPL teams. However, Mumbai have struggled for form and consistency in the last two seasons and finished last in the ten-team event in 2022 where they won just four out of their 14 matches.