The Black Caps have had a welcome visitor here. Daniel Vettori, their first-choice skipper, has been overseeing their practice sessions. And not just that, he’s been bowling a bit too.
The Black Caps have had a welcome visitor here. Daniel Vettori, their first-choice skipper, has been overseeing their practice sessions. And not just that, he’s been bowling a bit too.
Given New Zealand’s travails in the first Test, one wonders whether a 60% fit Vettori ought to be playing in Bangalore. Skipper Ross Taylor was pleased to have a former captain in the camp “to bounce ideas” off him. But he did remind that Vettori wouldn’t be around forever.
Yet having Vettori in the dressing room should act like a balm, considering New Zealand’s experience, or the lack of it.
One feels Taylor could do with a hand around his shoulder, perhaps an assertive coach would be a blessing. Not much is known about New Zealand’s new head coach Mike Hesson.
Nobody need tell him that coaching Otago and Kenya is radically different from a first assignment in India. Something about Hesson’s body language in the Hyderabad Test was just not right.
New Zealand were done in by a few debatable decisions. Hesson was seen in the match-referee and the third umpire’s rooms, having animated chats with the officials.
One feels that John Wright, with his experience of the Indian conditions, would have been invaluable here. New Zealand have had four coaches in as many years. Wright, naturally, was the best of the lot. He guided the Kiwis to the 50-over World Cup semifinals last year, while in November they recorded their first Test victory in Australia in 26 years.
Wright didn’t want to extend his contract after New Zealand’s Test debacles in the West Indies, though his differences with NZ director of cricket John Buchanan was cited as the main reason for his exit. The Kiwis have got their biggest selection wrong – and that’s off the field.
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