Shane Watson to become Pakistan's new Head Coach, majority of coaching team to consist of Foreign Coaches

Former Australia allrounder Shane Watson is reportedly in contention to become Pakistan’s head coach. The Australia great is currently plying his trade as the head coach of the Quetta Gladiators in the Pakistan Super League 2024 (PSL 2024).

The Gladiators roped him in before the ongoing season after failing to progress ahead of the league stage in the last four editions of the PSL. And Shane Watson has made an instant impact. The Gladiators have won four of their seven league games so far and are currently in the second spot in the points table.

They are looking destined to make it to the playoffs for the first time since 2019 when they won their first title. Incidentally, Shane Watson had starred with the bat for the Gladiators when they won the title in 2019. He was the highest run-scorer in the competition, scoring 430 runs, and was adjudged the Player of the tournament.

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Pakistan interested in Shane Watson:

With Shane Watson impressing as a head coach in PSL, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is interested in hiring him as the head coach of the Pakistan team, according to reports from Pakistan media. As per Cricket Pakistan, discussions are underway between the former cricketer and officials from the PCB regarding the possibility of him becoming the next Pakistan coach.

Shane Watson is also expected to meet the newly-appointed PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi before the deal is finalized. Pakistan are without a head coach since Grant Bradburn stepped down from the post after the ODI World Cup last year. Mohammad Hafeez served as the team director and coach when Pakistan visited Australia and New Zealand and he too resigned from his post recently.

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Quetta Gladiators Head coach Shane Watson emerges as the strong contender for Head Coach of Pakistan team pic.twitter.com/Bp6QkNSVVU

— ٰImran Siddique (@imransiddique89) March 6, 2024

If the deal between Shane Watson and PCB is finalized, it will be his first stint as a coach of an international team. Widely regarded as one of the best all-rounders of his generation, Watson retired from all forms of cricket in 2020.

In the last two seasons of the IPL, he plied his trade as an assistant coach of Delhi Capitals. Last year, he also served as the head coach of San Francisco Unicorns in the inaugural Major League Cricket.

Watson represented Australia in all the formats of the game. He played 59 Tests, 190 ODIs, and 58 T20Is for his national team. In Tests, he scored 3731 runs and picked up 75 wickets.

In ODIs, he scored 5757 runs and picked up 168 wickets and was part of two World Cup winning teams sides – in 2007 and 2015. In T20Is, Watson scored 1462 runs and took 48 wickets.