_Gujarat Giants rope in Rachael Haynes, Nooshin Al Khadeer, Tushar Arothe for coaching roles

New Delhi, Feb 3

Gujarat Giants, the Ahmedabad-based franchise in the newly-formed Womens Premier League (WPL) on Friday announced that they have roped in Rachael Haynes, Nooshin Al Khadeer, Tushar Arothe and Gavan Twining for coaching roles in the team.

Rachael will be the team's head coach while Nooshin, who recently coached the India U19 team to winning inaugural U19 Women's T20 World Cup in South Africa, will be the team's bowling coach.

Arothe, a former India women's team head coach, will be the batting coach of Gujarat Giants and Twining will be the team's fielding coach. The appointments come after legendary India cricketer Mithali Raj was appointed as the side's mentor and advisor on January 28.

"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 at the inaugural edition of the Women's Premier League, which will inspire several aspiring women athletes," said Mithali in an official statement by the franchise.

Rachael, who played for Australia in a career spanning more than a decade, has won six world championships with the Australian team and was the vice-captain of the side from 2017-2022.

The left-handed batter, who was an integral part of the very successful Australian set-up, featured in 84 T20Is and played crucial roles in the Australian team's championship winning campaigns at the 2018 and 2020 T20 World Cups.

Rachael, who was part of the team that won 2022 Women's ODI World Cup in New Zealand, has also turned out for the Sydney Thunder in the Women's Big Bash League, often leading the run scoring charts on her side.

"The Women's Premier League is such an exciting addition to the cricket landscape. The opportunity to be involved in the inaugural season with the Adani Sportline owned Gujarat Giants and work with the brilliant Mithali Raj is something I'm really looking forward to," Rachael said.

"We have formed a wonderful coaching team, with Nooshin Al Khadeer, Tushar Arothe and Gavan Twining, who will be bringing on board their rich experience which will help the team to play an exciting brand of cricket which our fans will enjoy watching," she added.

Nooshin, who made her debut for India when Mithali was already an integral part of the Indian women's cricket team, was an off-break bowler, bagging 100 wickets in ODIs.

Apart from winning the U19 Women's T20 World Cup in South Africa, Nooshin was the head coach of the Supernovas team who won the 2022 Women's T20 Challenge and hasn't lost a domestic competition as a coach in the last two years.

Under Arothe, the Indian Women's team reached the final of the ICC Women's ODI World Cup in 2017. He has also led the women's team to the final of the 2018 Women's T20 Asia Cup held in Malaysia and has got lots of experience in the domestic coaching circuit.

Adani Group, through Adani Sportsline Pvt. Ltd, got the right to acquire the Ahmedabad franchise named Gujarat Giants at the final bidding on January 25 with the highest bid of INR 1289 crores.

--IANS