In a major development, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have appointed former Australian all-rounder Shane Watson as their Assistant Coach ahead of the IPL 2026 retention deadline. All teams have to submit their list of retained and released players by Saturday, November 15.KKR made the announcement with a post on their official X handle, welcoming him to their set-up ahead of the upcoming season. Notably, Watson has been among the standout overseas players in IPL history."What a day, Watt-o Knight! 🙌Welcome to the Family, @ShaneRWatson33💜," the franchise wrote.Watson has won the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award twice in the league. He was named MVP for the first time in 2008 when the Rajasthan Royals (RR) won the inaugural IPL edition. In 2013, he won the award again, playing for RR.Having played 145 matches in the league, Watson began his journey with RR in 2008. He also represented the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK). The all-rounder scored 3874 runs with four hundreds and 21 half-centuries and bagged 92 wickets.He is also a three-time IPL winner, lifting the trophy with RR in 2008 and twice with CSK in 2018 and 2021.Watson will now join Abhishek Nayar (Head Coach) and Dwayne Bravo (Mentor) as a part of the coaching staff at KKR.KKR had a poor IPL 2025 seasonKolkata Knight Riders (KKR), who won their third IPL trophy in 2024, failed to defend the title last year. In fact, they could not even qualify for the playoffs. They finished eighth on the table with just five wins from 14 matches in the league stage.Having let go of Shreyas Iyer, who led them to the title in 2024, cost them heavily. While Ajinkya Rahane did a decent job as skipper, he was not able to guide the team through to the playoffs.Kolkata are among the most successful teams in the history of the league. They have won the title thrice. In 2012, they bagged their maiden title by beating CSK in the final. They repeated the feat in 2014, defeating Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) in the summit clash.Come IPL 2026, they will be keen to put up an improved performance and aim for their fourth title.