Taylor’s captaincy exit ill-timed and New Zealand’s long road ahead – Opinion - Part 2
Continued from Part 1...
Hesson’s credentials were unknown to a neutral observer, but he had plenty of knowledge of New Zealand cricket due to his six-year stint with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Otago-c829. Furthermore, he was well known in the domestic circuit for organizing and planning, and was a logical choice
for the Kiwi hierarchy.
His first series in-charge saw him travel to the sub-continent to take on the mighty Indians. As expected, his side easily lost out by a 2-0 margin, with no one, other than Ross Taylor stepping up to the mark.
The World T20 begun, and it was Brendon McCullum’s time to shine when he notched up his second T20 ton. His power hitting was immaculate, but for any pundit, or logical viewer, it was Taylor’s heroics which had kept them alive in the competition. His 40-ball
unbeaten 62 against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 was a perfect example of his class where he batted under considerable pressure to earn his side a tie, only to be on the losing side via the Super Over eliminator.
Despite McCullum finishing as the team’s leading run-getter, Taylor emerged with the highest average – 49 as compared to the former’s 42.40.
What followed was another testing time against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758. Although the initial part of the tour was largely ruined by rain, New Zealand gradually gave a good account of themselves as they acclimatized to the conditions. The final leg of the tour featured
two longer version bouts, where the team began slowly before finally hitting consistency, and achieving victory.
Taylor’s last act as captain, fittingly, was to score a match-winning hundred but even that could not compel the coaching staff to change their perspective. Hesson, along with Mike Sandle (team manager) and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Robert-Michael-Carter-c86086 (assistant coach), had made it clear
to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 next.
Although the possibility of split captaincy remained on the cards, it also became clear to Taylor that his time as skipper was coming to an end, despite making a strong case for retention of the role. The 28-year-old averaged almost 50 as the Test leader,
considerably higher than his career average, which stands at 43.57.
Moreover, he remained among the only three batters to score a Test century this year, the others being http://www.senore.com/Cricket/KS-Williamson-c1813. Guptill, who was named the team’s cricketer of the year, had a fruitful season with the bat, but his only three-figure
score had come against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Zimbabwe-c3045, a stat which clearly depicts the lack of talent at the Kiwis’ disposal.
Despite Taylor individually standing out, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 Cricket’s CEO, David White, announced the decision was in the best interest of the team.
"http://www.senore.com/Cricket/LRPL-Taylor-c1849 to be retained as Test captain and Brendon McCullum to be short-form captain. We regret that Ross
Taylor has declined the opportunity, therefore http://www.senore.com/Cricket/BB-McCullum-c1129 has been appointed as Black Caps captain for all three forms of the game.”
White added that Taylor had the support of his teammates, and they will be looking to see him back in the national fold as soon as possible.
Continued....
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