2017 Niche Cache World Tour Aotearoa Cricket Selection: Batsmen
Second year syndrome? Well, there were still four half-centuries.
Usually in a cricket squad, you'd only have two wicket-keepers and the rest of that squad would be made up of bowlers and batsmen. Obviously when you select as many wicket-keepers as I did for the Niche Cache World Tour, that's going to restrict how many batsmen we can select. Keep in mind that those wicket-keepers have mainly been selected for their batting ability and I'll get up close and personal with their glove-work on tour, so they will fill many of the key batting spots on tour.
That only leaves me with five batting spots, which definitely isn't enough. This does however suit what I want for the second NCWT, not only fitting in nicely with our plethora of wicket-keeping batsmen and also fitting in with what happened with regards to a few promising batsmen who were cornerstones of the first NCWT Aotearoa Cricket Selection. Chuck in the dominance of older batsmen in the Plunket Shield and things get very funky.
There are a number of honourable mentions, who probably would have been selected if I didn't go with all those damn wicket-keepers. Canterbury's South African opener Chad Bowes enjoyed a mighty Plunket Shield campaign, in which he averaged 45.66 and hit three centuries. That Bowes scored Plunket Shield runs has him as the next bloke in line should anyone pull out, but why would anyone wanna pull out of the NCWT?
Youngsters were far more impressive in the Ford Trophy, with Sean Solia (77.66avg) and Nick Kelly (49avg) deserving of praise.
Will Young
Some batsmen score lots of runs in either Plunket Shield or Ford Trophy cricket, usually it's easier to score lots of limited overs runs. Will Young not only captained Central Districts but he finished the season 3rd in Ford Trophy runs and 9th in Plunket Shield runs, averaging over 40 in both competitions.
There were only two 'youngish' batsmen ahead of Young in Plunket Shield runs - Tom Blundell and Tim Seifert are w-k selections - and Young hit two centuries and two half-centuries at 42.21avg in the four-day format. In one-day cricket, Young hit a century and three half-centuries at 45.77avg and a very handy 90.54sr to further establish himself as one of, if not the premier up and coming batsman in Aotearoa.
We know all about Young, he's been on the radar for a number of years and there isn't going to be too much new to find out about him on tour. Besides the joy of having a classy operator around the group, I wanna find out what Young reckons will take him to that next level and do my best to accommodate that. It might just be a case of telling him to keep scoring runs, go enjoy some County cricket and wait for Lesson to get the flick, thus opening the door for him.
Tom Bruce
Another easy selection as Young's CD comrade Tom Bruce scores runs freely in PS and FT cricket, despite being pigeon-holed as a T20 blaster. Bruce was 14th in FT and PSruns, averaging 37.28 at 109.66sr in FT and when you combine that with a PS averageof 41.53, we've got a damn good middle order batsman.
What I love, is his First-Class average of 44.53. Bruce is 25-year-old and in 46 FC innings, he has hit 16 scores over 50. It's not as though I need to figure out how to get Bruce to translate his limited overs work into four-day cricket or anything, instead we'll effectively be lumping Bruce alongside Young as someone who can lead the culture and vibe of the NCWT. Same goes with Bruce's future prospects at the international level as he can either continue to jump on the Blackcaps yo-yo, or not worry about that in the short-term and just enjoy playing freely.
Cole McConchie
I was pretty settled in selecting four batsmen for the NCWT, but I simply couldn't ignore Canterbury's Cole McConchie who, like Young and Bruce, did a nice job across both major formats. McConchie had three not-outs, which boosted his FT average up to 49.25 despite hitting just one half-century, however with a strike-rate of 93.36, McConchie proved himself to be a very handy middle order batsman. Chuck in a strong PS where he also averaged 49.10 with two centuries and a half-century and we've got an intriguing bloke, who also offers some off-spin.
Much of McConchie's best work came after Christmas, so I'm interested to see if he can continue to build on this and develop into a consistent scorer at No.5/6. Still only 25yrs, McConchie has plenty of time to suss out domestic cricket and while he's not as far along as Young or Bruce, he shown some rather promising signs and he'll first need to beat out a few of those wicket-keepers to make our NCWT team before he can show us what he's got. That's the challenge in front of McConchie and I'm excited to see how he responds.
Bharat Popli | Ken McClure
Alright, so these last two blokes were rather awesome last season but struggled to back it up this season. Both Bharat Popli (ND) and Ken McClure (Canterbury) did show glimpses of their run-scoring ability that saw them average 67.58 and 60.63 respectively last season and that's why they are more than welcome to re-join the NCWT.
Popli took the Plunket Shield by storm last season, hitting three centuries and seven half-centuries. This season he hit just four half-centuries and averaged 23.27, with three of those half-centuries coming in the second stanza of the PS season so he did eventually find some sort of form.
McClure hit two centuries and three half-centuries in 13 PS innings last season, but could only squeeze out two half-centuries this season. Like Popli, he finished the season strong with those half-centuries coming in his last four PS games and even his last three PS innings before Christmas weren't exactly horrible; 38, 47, 21.
Thanks to their 2015/16 seasons and a couple good knocks last season, both Popli and McClure have FC averages of 40. They could very easily be chucked in a one season wonder category, but although they did struggle to back up this season, they were there scoring runs at the end of the season. You gotta respect blokes who battle through some unwanted troubles and still manage to show little moments of their class, this also allows us plenty to work on while on tour and it'll be interesting to get some insight into their struggles. Then flip those struggles into piles of runs.
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