How Does Aotearoa Cricket Move Forward: The Nek 12 Months
Don't buzz Rossco, we got this.
Part One of this looksie at How Does Aotearoa Cricket Move Forward had me zoning in on explaining the situation. This certainly isn't just a case of the Blackcaps under-performing at a tournament where better teams also under-performed, this is a elongated period of madness and the Champions Trophy was merely the culmination of error after error.
The whole point of this however is to look at how kiwi cricket can actually move forward and move into what I view as rather exciting times. I'll stop short of saying that certain Lesson jokers should lose their job, that's not the vibe I'm trying to spread and whether it's the chap digging holes, the lovely lady at the drive-thru or some big-wig selector, we're all about positivity and preaching for someone to lose their job doesn't fit that.
I did find an interesting little yarn about how Gavin Larsen has taking up a job with Nelson Cricket Association in a commercial capacity. Given that Larsen didn't do a great job when being a top-dawg Blackcaps selector was his main gig, I'm not completely confident that Larsen is capable of taking kiwi cricket forward while he enjoys Nelson's sunshine. But hey, I'm happy to give Larsen the chance but I reckon he's gonna fluff it himself any way.
The best thing to do is to take Lesson out of the equation and to simply focus on the direction we want to go. If we do that now, then the Niche Cache and our lovely readers will have some sort of measurement to refer back to over the next 12 months. The simple truth is that the Blackcaps have gone backwards and that slide backwards coincides with our arrival at a juncture where a portion of our young talent is ready to be promoted, while the majority of our young talent is simmering away nicely.
Part Three of this series will look more at the young players who have me excited, so stay tuned for that.
When talking a style of cricket, the term 'brand' gets thrown around and that's when things get weird because we've seen the Blackcaps try to emulate a style or brand of cricket that doesn't actually mix with their strengths and weaknesses. You can dictate the brand and then tell a group of cricketers to try and play that way, I lean towards selecting the best group of cricketers and then adjusting how you play cricket around the strengths and weaknesses of that group.
And allow me to go on a tangent: there's no need to desperately try and play 'entertaining' cricket, just as there is absolutely no need for the British and Irish Lions to try play rugby like the All Blacks do. This is fairly arrogant of the kiwi rugby media as they believe that there's only one way to play rugby (the kiwi way) and that anything else is bad for the game.
What is bad for the game is if every team plays the same way and the joy about the Lions being here is that they are bringing their style to match up against the All Blacks. No other country has the resources of Aotearoa rugby, so no other country can play rugby how the All Blacks play rugby and the difference in how rugby is played is what makes it such a compelling contest.
If the best cricketers in Aotearoa don't smack sixes all around the park, or bowl 150km/h, then there's no need to try and be something we are not. Trying to be something we are not resulted in the plain mediocrity that we saw over in England as the Blackcaps harped back to Brendon McCullum's World Cup vibe, without any substance behind it.
Much of the talk from Lesson leading into the CT was about power in the batting line up because teams were going to be hitting totals of 300 with ease. This was weird as it showed no confidence in the bowling group to be able to limit opposition scoring and this placed an emphasis on the power of all-rounders, instead of the legit run-scoring ability of pure batsmen. Funnily enough, the lack of confidence in the bowling attack was justified but only because of the bowlers selected; they selected a group of bowlers and then conceded that they'd need to score 300 runs consistently.
Before selecting a Test and ODI team for the next 12 months, I had to ponder the all-rounder experiment and what this current group of cricketers is good at. The all-rounder experiment failed miserably and until James Neesham and Corey Anderson can prove themselves to be better options than another batsman or a bowler, they're out of the mix.
We have bowlers who can bat and all you need is your four bowlers to be able to score 50 runs between then consistently, then chime in with the odd big innings when required.
We also have three world-class players who will form the core of this group moving forward; Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor and Trent Boult. The value of Williamson and Boult speaks for itself, while I'm all for keeping Taylor around as long as possible as he's seen it all and that experience is crucial when ushering in a new era. There's definitely an element of 'as long as Taylor's scoring runs' but I'd happily stick with Taylor through thick and thin over the next few years as he offers value in the changing sheds etc.
Taylor can't be kicked to the curb after a poor series, that'd have me pondering how much more bonkers Lesson could get. We're in a period of transition and having Williamson at No.3 and Taylor at No.4 is a luxury as younger batsmen are welcomed into the team, I don't even think I should have to justify putting immense faith in a legend of kiwi cricket who averages 47.10 in Test cricket and 44.12 in ODIs.
That's the core though and from there, with me moving away from all-rounders, I see a solid group of seamers and batsmen who epitomise Aotearoa cricket as they are limited by skillful within those limitations. Take Matt Henry and Neil Wagner for example with the ball; they can't bowl super fast or swing the ball around corners but they can hit good areas consistently and take wickets through accuracy.
Or Tom Latham who I assume was overlooked for the CT team because he lacks 'power' yet that hasn't stopped Latham scoring runs in ODI and Test cricket. That's because Latham knows exactly what works for him, he's tidy and his foundations in defence allow him to stay at the crease, thus allowing him to score.
With that, here's a few teams for upcoming cricket
Test
Raval, Latham, Williamson, Taylor, Young, Blundell (wk), Santner, Southee, Sodhi/Henry, Wagner, Boult.
ODI
Guptill, Latham (wk), Williamson, Taylor, Nicholls, Bruce, Santner, Kuggeleijn, Henry, Sodhi, Boult.
Key Points
I'm completely happy if BJ Watling remains as the Test wicket-keeper, but there needs to be some inclusion of Tom Blundell. I'd also be completely happy if Blundell was brought into the Test team right now and it was strange that Blundell's Blackcaps call up came in T20 cricket while he's averaging 39.48 in First-Class cricket. Either way, get Blundell involved in the Test set up.
Tim Southee needs to show that he's worthy of holding down a spot. I'm leaning towards keeping Southee involved in the Test team, but damn he's gotta get back to dominating and doing so when the ball isn't hooping.
Henry Nicholls is my ODI No.5 and Will Young my Test No.5. I view Young as someone who can step into Taylor's position when he retires, but Young needs time to acquaint himself with Test cricket and that takes 20+ Tests, so the quicker he's in there the better. No one should sleep on Tom Bruce as a Test possibility though either, the major point here is that in Young and Bruce we have a 24-year-old and 25-year-old who average over 40 in FC cricket. So they need to be shown a pathway into the Blackcaps Test team.
Nicholls gets the nod in the ODI team thanks to his fantastic Ford Trophy campaign for Canterbury and his ability to manipulate the field while also hitting boundaries is class. Nicholls averages 43.32 in List-A cricket, compared to 36.98 in FC cricket and ideally there would be scope for Nicholls, Young and Bruce to form a long-term middle order in Test cricket.
Just like we have bowlers who can bat well enough in the two teams named, Bruce is a batsmen who dabbles in bowling. He's an off-spinner with 15 FC wickets at 32.33avg/4.03rpo so he can help out the bowlers when required, although he is picked as a No.6 batsmen based purely on his batting ability.
The Test team has Ish Sodhi vs Henry depending on conditions and if Southee's not performing, Henry swaps in for Southee as I really want Sodhi and Santner in the same team. This is a point of difference for Aotearoa and the inclusion of Sodhi in both teams gives the Blackcaps a wicket-taking threat that gels perfectly with Santner's tight spin.
Sodhi has been yo-yo'd in and out of both teams which does absolutely nothing for his development and the more Sodhi plays alongside Santner, the better Williamson will get at sussing out plans around these two. Remember that Sodhi has grown up bowling leg-spin in Aotearoa where he enjoys plenty of bounce, so the idea of only playing Sodhi and Santner together in India for example is silly. Not too many other teams have two spinners who compliment each other as these two do and I'd suggest that, in the coming years, the bowling attack could be built around these two.
That Neil Wagner has been pigeon-holed as only a Test bowler is disgusting and he's been dominating for Essex in 50-over cricket while the Blackcaps were up shit's creek. I would love to see Wagner given plenty of ODI cricket, but I went with Scott Kuggeleijn as he needs time to settle into international cricket. We know Kuggeleijn can bat and he's a hostile bowler who has been among the top wicket-takers in domestic cricket over the past few seasons, so he needs a consistent crack.
Unfortunately for Wagner, he was shafted and now it's kinda too late.
That leaves us with a group of Neesham, Anderson, Neil Broom, Mitchell McClenaghan, Adam Milne, Jeetan Patel, Colin de Grandhomme and Colin Munro who have featured in the recent past but aren't in my mixing bowl. Some of these blokes won't be factors in two years and others haven't really performed, so these guys need to put themselves back in contention by dominating domestic cricket.
Aotearoa cricket as two batting wizards (Williamson and Taylor), a world-class seamer (Boult), a work-horse seamer (Wagner) a tidy opening batsmen (Latham) and two spinners who do the opposite of each other (Sodhi and Santner). That's a foundation with some spinning funk thrown on top to take the Blackcaps not only into the future, but down a different route to other teams around the world as well as previous Blackcaps teams who have relied on a traditional formula that has never really brought success.
That's also a group that is well-equipped to deal with the various conditions of the cricketing world; Wagner performs well in all conditions while Sodhi can still spin the ball and extract bounce on a unfavourable deck. For the Blackcaps to achieve world domination, they must be an extremely tough opponent away from home and for that they need a variety of tools available to them.
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