Doull: Axe Williamson and Hesson from T20s

Former New Zealand bowler Simon Doull has called for the Black Caps to axe captain Kane Williamson and coach Mike Hesson from their Twenty20 cricket side.

New Zealand crumbled to a seven-wicket defeat to Australia in Sydney last Saturday in the first T20 of this month’s Trans-Tasman triseries with Australia and England.

Doull said New Zealand Cricket (NZC) should consider opener Martin Guptill as captain and Black Caps legend Daniel Vettori as coach for New Zealand’s T20 side.

Vettori coaches T20 in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the Big Bash, and Doull believes too many of New Zealand’s test players are picked for cricket’s shortest format.

‘‘I don’t think we are getting the selections right. I’ve had some concerns for a while,’’ he told Radio Sport.

‘‘I would like to see Colin de Grandhomme batting higher but it is the selections, not the batting order [which is the problem]. We want dynamic players and should be giving them an opportunity at T20 level.

‘‘If Kane Williamson doesn’t open in T20 he shouldn’t be playing. His record opening is very good – at three and four it’s not that great. But he shouldn’t be in the T20 side, there’s a lot shouldn’t be in the T20 side.’’

Doull, who also wants the likes Ross Taylor and Tim Southee dropped to give Anton Devcich, Mark Chapman and Tim Seifert an opportunity, said Guptill would ‘‘relish the captaincy and responsibility’’ after Williamson’s awful innings of eight from 21 balls in New Zealand’s crushing defeat at the SCG to Australia, who had just one test player in their side.

New Zealand also recently lost a three-match T20 series 2-1 on home soil to Pakistan.

Doull also thinks New Zealand should look at installing a new coach for the T20 side so Hesson can freshen up. ‘‘He’s a great coach who has done an amazing job, and has really grown into the job.

‘‘But he gets very little time off, only a small amount of time with his family. Give him T20 completely off, get a new coach, new ideas, a new bunch of players.

‘‘[The coach] probably needs to have played the game to understand it a bit better. The Northern Knights [winners of this season’s Super Smash] had Gareth Hopkins solely as their T20 coach and he played until recently. The rest of the coaches around the country are a bit older, out of touch with T20.’’