Blackcaps x Champions Trophy: The Squad (General Squad Konfusion)
There didn't appear to be a whole lot of planning for the Champions Trophy with regards to the wicket-keepers and it's the same story when pondering the inclusions of Mitchell McClenaghan, Adam Milne and Corey Anderson. Even though Neil Broom, Jimmy Neesham, Colin de Grandhomme and Jeetan Patel don't really fill your loins with confidence heading into a major tournament, their selections were likely given what we saw over the summer #planning.
A good starting point here is Lesson's (Gavin Larsen and Mike Hesson combined) desire to highlight how awesome it is to have four all-rounders. This comes after a summer in which we all scratched our noggins and bemoaned the lack of specialists as guys who could offer a little splash with the ball were selected as batsmen, instead of batsmen who have the sole job of scoring runs.
At this point, it's hard to even consider Corey Anderson an all-rounder. We all know what he's capable of with bat and ball, however Anderson only made a tentative return to the bowling crease during the last few rounds of the Plunket Shield. Anderson bowled in the last three Plunket Shield games, only bowling in one innings of each of those games and only bowling 3-4 overs. Anderson has been bowling in the IPL, but again these are short spells and it's a bit different to rolling through 10 overs under pressure.
Obviously Lesson believe Anderson can do a job with bat and ball. Following on from the look at the wicket-keeping situation, this is one of many decisions that Lesson will hang their hats on and if Anderson can prove to be a factor as an all-rounder, chur. If not, well you know how I feel about that.
Mitchell Santner averages 26.58 in ODI cricket and is yet to hit a half-century. At this stage Santner is a spinner and considering that Jeetan Patel has hit scores of 8, 29, 36, 49*, 0 and 20 over in England on the Kiwi County Tour, you could argue that Patel is just as effective with the bat as Santner.
Santner and Patel are in direct competition for a spinning spot, but could play alongside each other. Anderson is competing with Jimmy Neesham and Colin de Grandhomme for an 'all-rounder' spot, yet Anderson is on the comeback trail as an all-rounder, while Neesham and de Grandhomme just don't quite fill you with confidence that they can play key roles at a major tournament.
Neil Broom heads to the Champions Trophy as a likely No.5, with Martin Guptill, Tom Latham, Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor as the top order. Broom has an ODI average 24.84 and since his 73 at Eden Park, Broom has not scored a half-century in domestic or international cricket. Broom is also yet to score a half-century outside of Aotearoa. Again, there's a lack of planning here as Broom only came into the frame when Ross Taylor was out injured and instead of grooming a No.5 over the summer with an eye on the Champions Trophy, we are now left with certified No.5. This job will likely fall to Broom, while the alternative options of putting an all-rounder there or Luke Ronchi, are just as troublesome.
Lesson highlighted how 'experienced' this squad is and that's true to a point, it's just that the experience comes in the form of guys like Broom who average 24 in ODI cricket. Lesson could have built that experience by giving George Worker, Henry Nicholls, Tom Bruce or Colin Munro a full summer at batting at No.5. Now there are no further options other than Broom or an all-rounder because no one else was given a decent shot at establishing themselves at No.5.
What is also reason for concern is that having so many all-rounders, means that someone like Worker couldn't be selected as cover/competition for Latham at the top of the order. I like the Guptill/Latham combo as Guptill can play freely and allow Latham to play his natural, steady game and it's also important to note that Latham's best work in ODI cricket has come alongside Guptill.
Worker averaged 82.37 in the Ford Trophy, although we need to note the Pukekura Park factor here. Worker's got a List-A average of 43.50 and more importantly, Worker hit three half-centuries and a century in the final five Plunket Shield games (none of which were at Pukekura Park). Given Latham's struggles recently, Worker must be one of a few kiwi cricketers who are simply wondering what more they could do to earn Blackcaps selection.
Just as all these selection decisions are going to impact the future of Lesson (positively or negatively), the decision to select Mitchell McClenaghan and Adam Milne will perhaps hold the most weight. McClenaghan and Milne have the ability to be key factors at the Champions Trophy, which could see Lesson look rather wise, yet it also reflects a complete lack of development over the summer, building towards the Champions Trophy.
McClenaghan and Milne only made their respective comebacks from injury in the latter half of the domestic summer and have obviously been selected from the IPL. This boggles my mind because conditions in India don't resemble anything close to those they'll find in England, let alone ODI cricket being rather different from T20 cricket where wickets are fairly easy to come by because every batsman is trying to whack you out of the park.
Lesson used Lockie Ferguson throughout the summer and have obviously highlighted the 'need for speed' as a requirement in their bowling attack. Ferguson didn't quite do enough to demand selection (neither did many other blokes) but he was also kicked to the curb after a few rough games. Ferguson was however playing ODI cricket and while Ferguson was playing ODI cricket, Milne went wicket-less in five Plunket Shield innings.
That's correct folks; Adam Milne has earned a recall to the Blackcaps are not taking a wicket in three games/five innings upon his return to domestic cricket.
Milne did hit a 51* though, so he's obviously been selected for his batting.
Buuuuut Milne averages 40.61 with the ball in ODI cricket.
I quite like the selection of Mitchell McClenaghan, mainly because McClenaghan has proven himself to be an ODI wicket-taker. Factor in that McClenaghan's career average of 28.20 drops to 24.65 in England and if he's healthy, he should be in a Blackcaps ODI squad.
Besides completely ignoring Neil Wagner as a viable ODI option - something that makes very little sense with Wagner averaging 26.67 in List-A cricket - Matt Henry's omission and the continuation of Ish Sodhi's yo-yo international career are just strange. Sodhi could have been given the whole summer to build towards the Champions Trophy and that England's conditions aren't too far removed from those in Aotearoa would work in Sodhi's favour as he'd be able to extract bounce and generally do what he's done growing up as a leg-spinner in Aotearoa.
Instead, Sodhi played two ODIs in the whole kiwi summer and despite taking a wicket in each of his last six ODIs, Sodhi has been in and out of the Blackcaps. This summer could have been used to try and figure out how Sodhi, Patel and Santner could play in the same ODI team together, with an aim to unleash a spin trio just as the Blackcaps unleashed Sodhi and Santner at the World T20.
Alternatively, Matt Henry could have been given the summer to build into a key role alongside Tim Southee and Trent Boult as cornerstones of the bowling attack. Henry wasn't used after he and the Blackcaps were terrible over in Australia, with Henry making way for Ferguson (also not selected) and de Grandhomme. First of all it's weird that Henry, who is arguably our best ODI bowler at the moment and averages 25.10 in ODI cricket, was forced to make way for guys like Ferguson and de Grandhomme, with Henry unable to further his case for Champions Trophy selection because, well, he got shafted.
Then you've got to ponder how strange it is that Lesson would leave such an ODI-specific talent out of a major ODI tournament. Henry even ticks Lesson's 'all-rounder' box as he has three First-Class half-centuries and averages 20.62/104.43sr in ODI cricket; Henry is kinda the prototype Lesson player!
That 'experience' yarn gets funky when you compare Henry and Milne, because Henry's just as experienced as Milne and history states that Henry is a much better bowler.
Henry has played 30 ODIs, Milne has played 33 ODIs.
Henry has played 43 FC games, Milne has played 18 FC games.
Henry has played 71 List-A games, Milne has played 58 List-A games.
For the sake of kiwi cricket, it may be best that Lesson gets this all wrong and that the Blackcaps struggle in the Champions Trophy. For the sake of Lesson, they'll be hoping that their complete lack of planning or regard for what they did or didn't do selection-wise pays off at a major international tournament.
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