Team New Zealand’s current batting coach Luke Ronchi is reportedly in talks with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to take over as head coach. PCB has offered the head coach position to former New Zealand player Luke Ronchi.
Grant Bradburn was the former head coach of the Pakistan National Cricket Team, who resigned from the position after the 2023 ODI World Cup last year. Notably, Ronchi had previously denied the coaching position and then offered it to Bradburn, who took up the position in May 2023.
The cricketpakistan.com report also claims that former players Shane Watson, Mike Hesson and Daren Sammy have turned down the role of the new head coach of the Pakistan team respectively.
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Luke Ronchi has not yet responded to PCB’s offer
Reports also stated that Luke Ronchi is yet to respond to PCB’s offer. It has taken some time to make a decision on the offer. Former New Zealand Wicket-keeper batsman Ronchi was a star performer in the 2018 edition of Pakistan Super League (PSL).
The New Zealand batsman was the highest run-getter in the 2018 season and also helped his team Islamabad United to the second PSL title. He also smashed a decisive knock against Pakistan Zalmi in the final.
Luke Ronchi, 42, played for New Zealand from 2008 to 2018. He played 4 Tests, 85 ODIs and 33 T20Is for the Blackcaps during his career. The wicketkeeper batsman managed 359 runs in T20Is with a powerful strike rate of 140+.
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Pakistan will host New Zealand in the T20I series
Meanwhile, Pakistan will host New Zealand in their upcoming T20I campaign at home next month. The Pakistan vs New Zealand T20I series will observe five games between both sides in April. Recently, Pakistan players were busy with PSL 2024.
In PSL 2024, Islamabad United won their third title led by captain Shadab Khan. Interestingly, they won three straight games in the playoffs to clinch the title. In the final they surpassed Mohamed Rizwan-Led by Multan Sultans by 2 wickets.
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Pakistan faced humiliating defeats against New Zealand and Australia
Pakistan has faced some miserable losses in recent months. For example, the men in green lost the T20I series against New Zealand 4-1 under their new captain Shaheen Afridi. Before that, they lost a test series against Australia 3-0.
Pakistan also witnessed a change in captaincy after the ICC ODI World Cup last year. Babar Azam stepped down as skipper in all three formats. Shan Masood was later named Test captain while Shaheen Afridi was named T20I captain. However, both captains faced humiliating defeats in their first campaigns.