As I alluded to in this week's MC Sports ManDem video, opportunities to wiggle your way into the Blackcaps Test team are hard to come by. The lack of Test cricket for the Blackcaps means that the natural rotation of players through injury and lads not doing the job vanishes, which to some extent could draw a comparison to a pond; water sits in the pond and can get a bit icky, where as with rivers and estuaries there is a natural flow to shake things up.

Right now the Blackcaps pond is clean, crispy and lovely. There are no dramas, other than the fact that there is a Blackcaps Test pond and I view this as an unforeseen consequence of yanking Test cricket away from Aotearoa's best cricketers. ODI cricket on the other hand is a gushing river by comparison for the Blackcaps as they play plenty of games and on top of the injury/form factors, we have the artificial and rather unnecessary artificial rotation of players.
NZC have scheduled all this limited overs cricket to make money and they want you to spend your money to watch a Blackcaps team without Kane Williamson. Blasphemy.

(This flows on from the lack of star power in the Super Smash, or at least familiar faces for cricket fans to get excited about. NZC want you to care about Super Smash, but schedule all their Blackcaps limited overs cricket during the Super Smash so Aotearoa's best cricketers can't pump up the Super Smash. Instead, it's left to Ben Stokes to generate buzz around the Super Smash, chur Ben).

Unfortunately, the passing of Colin de Grandhomme's father means that de Grandhomme has to handle family matters. On top of the injuries, form and artificial rotation that will result in constant tinkering with the Blackcaps ODI squad and team (during a series), there are situations like this that result in a change, a natural flow that ushers in a new player into the squad.

Haere mai Doug Bracewell, teach me how to dougie Douglas.

I approach all Doug Bracewell matters from a point of bias as he's one of my favourite cricketers in Aotearoa, so let me get that disclaimer out of the way. Although, in this instance I'm not sure such a bias matters as I'm a wee bit perplexed about the return of Bracewell, regardless of how much I love it.

The rational here from Lesson is that Bracewell is a like-for-like replacement for de Grandhomme. They both do a similar job and Bracewell has been in sublime touch with the willow in the Plunket Shield where his 245 runs in 5 innings (average of 81.66 is inflated by two not-outs) is better than Tom Blundell's 182 runs in 6 innings, Jimmy Neeshams's 187 runs in 8 innings, Neil Broom's 167 runs in 6 innings and Jeet Raval's 195 runs in 8 innings.

Bracewell currently sits 12th in Ford Trophy runs and the group of notable kiwi batsmen who have less FT runs than Bracewell is too long to list.

Fire batting emoji.

With the ball, Bracewell was stock-standard Dougie in PS; 12w in 8inns @ 25.42avg/3.12rpo. That didn't quite translate into FT cricket though (small sample size alert) and the single most important factor in Bracewell earning Blackcaps ODI selection this summer is what he's done with the ball in 50-over cricket, so 3w in 3 games @ 41.66avg/4.46rpo isn't exactly demanding selection, right?

Again, I'm Bracewell's biggest fan and that's based on what he does with the ball. Based on why Bracewell has been selected in the ODI squad to face West Indies (he's scoring runs!!), we should apparently be judging Bracewell on his run-scoring during this series. That's a recipe for disaster as Bracewell is no CDG with the blade, sure Bracewell's batting may have improved or whatever, but CDG is a lower order international batsman who averages 35.97 in First-Class cricket. CDG has genuinely been an all-rounder in Aotearoa for almost 10 years.

Bracewell's an international bowler and most international bowlers score domestic runs.
It seems as though we are back at the same spot we were in before and during the woeful Champions Trophy (the Blackcaps will dominate the domestic limited overs summer), only that the personnel has changed. CDG is joined by Corey Anderson, Jimmy Neesham and Mitchell Santner as the only kiwi cricketers who could make legit cases for international all-rounder status. And even in that quartet, CDG is the only bloke who's feels like he's slick with bat and ball at that level given that Neesham's bowling isn't quite 'slick' and Santner's batting has never lived up to the hype ... Anderson? Well, we haven't seen enough of him so who knows.

Now the Blackcaps have Bracewell and Todd Astle as their 'all-rounders'. Astle has enjoyed selection in recent times because on top of his leggies, he can bat and that's viewed as a key factor in selecting him over Ish Sodhi or a pace bowler - if the Blackcaps play with Santner and George Worker (who is different because he's selected for his batting, not because he bowls a bit as well).

Bracewell has been selected because his recent run-scoring has him viewed as a like-for-like replacement for CDG and that's weird. Had Bracewell been selected because he's the next seamer in line, it would of also been a bit weird because he hasn't quite dominated domestic cricket and a full summer in domestic cricket to get himself back on track would have been primo.

This is all super duper weird because after I thought the Champions Trophy all-rounder situation was shunned into corner, it's lingering and it's lingering with players who aren't as good as the all-rounders who didn't do the job. Players are still earning selection for their weaker attribute, instead of going all-in on what that player's major strength.

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Peace and love 27.