Bharath Ramaraj in Dubai
The name Mike Hesson is synonymous with how he and Brendon McCullum helped New Zealand resurrect their fortunes in the international arena. He also was the Director of Cricket at Royal Challengers Bengaluru and went on to serve as the head coach of Islamabad United. In this freewheeling interview, Hesson shares his thoughts on cricketers that he has worked with before – Virat Kohli, Mitchell Santner and co. He also delves deeper to analyse India and New Zealand, two of the form teams in the ongoing Champions Trophy.
Excerpts:
The other day, Virat Kohli played a superlative knock against Pakistan. You have seen him from close quarters. Can you just take us through how he goes about constructing an innings in limited-overs cricket?
In terms of his preparation, he is very aware of the bowlers that he has to take on, on particular surfaces. Quite a lot of preparation goes into it, from thought process, obviously knows the conditions very well. He is what I would describe as an exceptional problem-solver, so he is one of those guys who does a lot of his work out there. Once he gets out there, assesses the conditions well, makes that assessment of what shots are on, what shots aren’t. So, even though he might look like an instinctive player, he would have put in a lot of preparation into how his game might suit that particular surface, those particular bowlers.
So, we all talk about the master chaser that he is, but he is able to navigate his side to victory depending on what the game pace is. He can read the game pace, and go up and down through the gears depending on what is required to navigate a side to a win. In Dubai, for example, you have two quite different surfaces so far. In terms of his game, being more confident on this surface (the pitch for the match against Pakistan) to be able to prod forward and drive through the off side. There Wasn’t as much seam movement as that first game, but there was a little more hold in that surface.
So, he basically made that assessment quite quickly. Then obviously, as the dew came in, other shots opened up. He is always going to run hard, always going to put pressure on the opposition in that way. But I think there were more strokes on offer from the last surface than the one before. So, he was able to assess that.
Can you just delve a little deeper into how Kohli goes about his business in terms of practice or net sessions?
It very much depends on what stage he is at. You know whether it is leading into a tournament, whether you have got a short period of time, between times, and he wants to get that feel. He is very much a feel player. Some players are more into the technical side, Virat is more into the feel. He wants to hit enough balls to leave the net knowing that he is confident. So, the whole idea of preparation is if he is not scoring runs, he wants to do the extra work in the nets.
So, hit an amount of deliveries to keep the form up. He is one of the few guys who can find form in the nets. Therefore, give himself that confidence that he has done the work, and he will flow into the next game. A lot of players are short, sharp in the nets, Virat is probably much longer. He likes to have a longer net if he is not scoring runs. And when he is scoring runs, when he is in a bit of flow, he also likes to have a long net, so that he can keep the flow going. Not big on watching videos, but more as I said that kinesthetic awareness, the feel that some other players don’t have.
You talked about Kohli ‘finding form’ or ‘feel’ in the nets. Can you just elaborate on that?
Yeah, look, there were many times Virat would come down early, like he did the other day. There are other times, when he is not quite feeling it. So, we get some bowlers down there like Sanjay Bangar, myself would come down early. Sometimes, he would have a net by himself with the coach, do some work, get that feel away from the limelight. So, he really enjoys that time in his own space, working with the coach, one-one-one, finding that feel. He knows very much what works for him.
How do you look at India’s line-up? What about the seam attack, especially in the backdrop of Harshit Rana and Arshdeep Singh coming into the equation?
Look, before this tournament, I was thinking Arshdeep Singh was going to go with Shami, thought that would work well. When you have only two frontline seamers, they have to bowl at least three spells, and Arshdeep is probably more suited to bookending the innings. I think it is (still) a fair enough decision with Rana, he has shown the ability, that change of pace, he can still bowl with the new ball, but he brought quite a different skill set than Mohammad Shami. So, they complement each other well. And Hardik Pandya has been very good.
I think his ability to control the length in Dubai, very good seam presentation, makes him a high-quality third seamer. I think India is benefiting from that. And then when you have got all those spinners, you can just rotate, use them based on match-ups. It is a good line-up. I will be a bit surprised if [Varun] Chakaravarthy doesn’t play against New Zealand to see whether they can fit that extra spinner in. But I think with the potential of dew in Dubai, which does crop from time to time, it is going to be hard for them to play Hardik and one other (seamer).
So, I am not sure who would they leave out. Maybe it is Jadeja, then your balance is all over the place. It is easy to replace Washington with Jadeja, not so sure Chakaravarthy. So, not sure how it will shape up. Look, India are the form side, I think South Africa are the other form side.
During your tenure, RCB played enough times in Dubai. But it was at a slightly different period of the year. So, how do you look at the conditions in Dubai?
Look, I think the dew point is a little higher now, because the change in temperature, it is not going down really (a lot), but it is dropping down enough. I think when the dew point is about 6 degrees in Dubai, so anything that drops more than that, you pretty much know that there would be dew. If it gets up to 9, it is going to be heavy dew. Obviously, taking into account the wind, the potential overcast conditions, but basically the dew point of 6 degrees is relatively low.
You always know that is a real possibility. It doesn’t necessarily have to cause droplets on the outfield, but it causes very nice sheen on the wicket. Once you get that sheen on the wicket, the two-paced nature of the Dubai wicket doesn’t take effect. Whereas when you’re bowling first with that two-paced nature, all of your bowlers come into play. The guys who bowl change-up, your seam bowlers upfront, there is a little bit in it. And the spinners are all in the game, let it be wrist or finger spinners, there is enough hold in the surface.
Whereas in the second innings, it isn’t. The finger spinners slide onto the bat, your wrist spinners are still effective, not if it turns into heavy dew. I like the Dubai stadium because all of your bowlers are in the game. Unless there is heavy dew, and that becomes a little bit unfair, in terms of 50-50 competition. Probably it makes 70-30 in favour of chasing.
How do you look at the evolution of Mitchell Santner as a bowler and captain?
Look, when I picked Mitchell Santner, he had played very few games. Pretty much picked him from a second XI game as a replacement for Daniel Vettori. More so because when you could bat at that time, we wanted that multi-skilled cricketer. He put on plenty of revs on the ball, he is very street-smart, he is academically very clever, he has got a great cricketing brain in terms of reading the batters. I guess because of that low front-arm, he is able to make that late change in terms of trajectory, he can follow the batter, he can bowl slow and wide, he has got all the tricks, yet his stock ball has plenty of revs on it.
As we picked him young, he hadn’t really played first-class cricket as a bowler. He probably didn’t get the volume of overs that a lot of young spinners get because he was pretty much chucked into the white-ball game. And that probably affected his ability to shift to Test cricket. But he has now got a few games under his belt, he has started to improve in that area too. But just a fine all-round cricketer. Spoke about it earlier that he used to open the batting at younger levels, so he has got that batting technique, even though he has got an unusual technique. He has got genuine power, he has got a great swing of the bat, a fine golfer, a lot of swing comes from golf swing, where he generates a huge amount of power.
It was only a matter of time before he came into leadership roles because of that ability to read the game nicely, what is required at what time. He is a very-well liked guy in that group, very-well respected guy in that group as well because of his work ethic and the way he reads the game. He has started really nicely, in a nice and calm manner.
What about New Zealand’s seam attack? Trent Boult and Tim Southee have retired, but they still have Matt Henry, Will O’Rourke, Jacob Duffy, Kyle Jamieson…
They are front-end loaded though. All of those bowlers are very good in the first 15 overs of the match. If you get a side three down, you’re away. If you don’t though, all three are suited for that same role. You wouldn’t say any of them are death specialists, they can all come back in the middle and bowl short spells, but they are certainly not suited to the back-end of an innings.
If you’re defending a score and you’re under the pump, they are certainly missing Lockie Ferguson or, like you said, Trent Boult or Tim Southee, who are so experienced in that role. So, that is an area where New Zealand are perhaps not as proficient as they would like to be. But they have gone for the attacking option with Jamieson.
They could go for Duffy. Jacob Duffy is very much a death specialist. Interesting to see what they will do, especially when the surfaces are slower, and they don’t offer much bounce. They might just go Duffy instead of Jamieson. I think that is something that you would definitely consider.
On the professional front, I am hearing that you’re opening a YouTube account in relation to cricket. Can you just share your thoughts on it?
Also Read: Kohli’s Crunching Pulls, Bazooka Hits and the Onus on Shami – Recap of India’s Practice Session