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Why Mike Hesson can be Ravi Shastri’s suitable replacement as India’s Head Coach in 2021

Dixit Bhargav
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Why Mike Hesson can be Ravi Shastri's suitable replacement as India's Head Coach in 2021?

Mike Hesson can be Ravi Shastri’s suitable replacement: The New Zealander has missed the Indian coach’s job by a narrow margin.

“Very intelligent. Very good young boy,” Cricket Advisory Committee head Kapil Dev said about former New Zealand and Kings XI Punjab coach Mike Hesson while announcing Indian cricket team’s new head coach.

The 44-year old Hesson was only second to Ravi Shastri when it came to getting the final nod. While Dev laid emphasis on evaluating the candidates on the basis of their presentations, Hesson’s past experience has it in it for him to be considered for coaching jobs around the world.

Hesson is the longest serving coach of New Zealand’s cricket team. Initially appointed in 2012, Hesson had his contract extended over the years. While he was expected to coach till the recently concluded ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, Hesson resigned from the job in June 2018.

Mike Hesson can be Ravi Shastri’s suitable replacement

In 53 Test matches under Hesson, New Zealand won 21, lost 19 and drew 13 matches. In 112 completed ODIs, Hesson saw New Zealand winning and losing 65 and 46 matches respectively. Hesson’s consistency continued in the shortest format as New Zealand won and lost 30 and 24 matches under him respectively.

It was under Hesson that New Zealand saw a super-attacking captain in Brendon McCullum coming up through the ranks. The current captain in Kane Williamson also seems to be following the same approach.

While Shastri reaped the benefit of being the current Indian coach to a great extent, someone like Hesson can be looked forwarded to when Shastri’s tenure will end after the ICC T20 World Cup 2021. Shastri, who will be 59 years old then, might not be eligible for another tenure majorly due to the age-cap which comes with the job.

This piece, by no means, aims to compare and evaluate Shastri and Hesson. Given the drastic difference between their tenures as national coaches of their respective teams, the same might even be unfair. That being said, given that Hesson missed the designation by a narrow margin, he might just be an apt replacement for Shastri a couple of years down the line.

About the author

Dixit Bhargav

Dixit Bhargav

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Born and brought up in Pathankot, Dixit Bhargav is an engineering and sports management graduate who works as a Cricket Editor at The SportsRush. Having written more than 10,000 articles across more than five years at TSR, his first cricketing memory dates back to 2002 when former India captain Sourav Ganguly had waved his jersey at the historic Lord’s balcony. What followed for an 8-year-old was an instant adulation for both Ganguly and the sport. The optimist in him is waiting for the day when Punjab Kings will win their maiden Indian Premier League title. When not watching cricket, he is mostly found in a cinema hall watching a Punjabi movie.

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