PCB turns to Luke Ronchi as head coach candidate after triple rejection - Reports

The New Zealand team’s current batting coach Luke Ronchi is in talks with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to take over the position of head coach, according to reports. PCB has offered the position of head coach to Luke Ronchi, a former New Zealand player.

Grant Bradburn was the former head coach of the Pakistan National Cricket Team, who resigned from the post after the ODI World Cup 2023 last year. Notably, Ronchi had earlier denied the coach position and it was later offered to Bradburn, who took over the position in May 2023.

The report by cricketpakistan.com also claims that former players Shane Watson, Mike Hesson, and Daren Sammy have rejected the role of Pakistan team’s new head coach respectively.

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Luke Ronchi yet to respond to PCB’s offer

The reports also informed that Luke Ronchi is yet to respond to PCB’s offer. He has taken some time to make his decision on the offer. Former New Zealand wicketkeeper batter Ronchi was a star performer in the 2018 edition of Pakistan Super League (PSL).

The Kiwi batter was the highest run-getter in the 2018 season and also helped his team Islamabad United to clinch the second PSL title. He also shattered a match-winning knock against Pakistan Zalmi in the final.

42-year-old Luke Ronchi played for New Zealand from 2008 to 2018. He played 4 Tests, 85 ODIs, and 33 T20Is for the Blackcaps during his career. The wicket-keeper batter mustered 359 runs in T20Is at a powerful strike rate of 140+.

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Pakistan to host New Zealand in T20I series

Meanwhile, Pakistan will host New Zealand in their upcoming T20I campaign at home next month. 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 skipper Shadab Khan. Interestingly, they won three back-to-back games in the playoffs to clinch the title. In the final, they outplayed Mohammad Rizwan-led Multan Sultans by 2 wickets.

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Pakistan faced humiliating defeats against NZ and AUS

Pakistan has faced some miserable losses in the last few months. For instance, the men-in-green lost T20I series against New Zealand 4-1 under their new skipper Shaheen Afridi. Before that, they lost a Test series against Australia 3-0.

Pakistan also witnessed a captaincy shift after the ICC ODI World Cup last year. Babar Azam stepped down as skipper across all three formats. Later, Shan Masood was named the Test skipper while Shaheen Afridi was nominated as the T20I captain. However, both skippers faced humiliating defeats in their first campaigns.