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