Gujarat Giants rope in Rachael Haynes, U-19 T20 WC winning coach Nooshin Al Khadeer as coaches for WPL 2023

Gujarat Giants have signed former World Cup champion Rachael Haynes as their head coach for the inaugural edition of the Women's Premier League (WPL 2023). The Ahmedabad-based franchise has also appointed India's U-19 T20 World Cup-winning coach Nooshin Al Khadeer as its bowling coach.

In case you didn't know, the Gujarat Giants team is owned by Adani Sportsline. They spent a whopping ₹1,289 crore to acquire the Ahmedabad-based franchise in the Women's Premier League. Apart from Haynes and Al Khadeer, Gujarat have also roped in Tushar Arothe and Gavan Twining as their batting and fielding coaches, respectively.

Before naming their coaches, Gujarat signed former Indian women's team captain Mithali Raj as their mentor.

Raj was quoted as saying the following by NDTV about the team's new coaches:

“The likes of Rachael Haynes, Nooshin Al Khadeer, Tushar Arothe, and Gavan Twining will certainly take the performance of the team notches up.

“Not only have they carved a niche for themselves in their roles, but their stories of resilience will be an inspiration for the team. Their combined strengths will enable Adani Sportsline's Gujarat Giants to give their best performance on the ground."

Gujarat Giants' new head coach Rachael Haynes retired from international cricket last year

Fans should note that both Mithali Raj and Rachael Haynes retired from international cricket in 2022. Haynes represented Australia Women in six Tests, 77 ODIs and 84 T20Is during her career. She achieved the most success in the ODI format, where she aggregated 2,585 runs, smashing two hundreds and 19 fifties.

Raj, on the other hand, played 12 Tests, 232 ODIs and 89 T20Is for the Indian women's team. She was interested in participating in the WPL 2023 as a player but later decided to join the Giants as a mentor.

It will be interesting to see how the two recently retired cricketers perform in their new roles.