We've Got An Aotearoa 'A' Cricket Team
Lock it in; Lockie might be the quickest
The good vibes in kiwi cricket sit firmly with the domestic cricket scene, having aborted the Blackcaps and their recent struggles in India/Test cricket in general. That's what made the selection of a Aotearoa 'A' cricket team to face Pakistan so intriguing as we all get a bit of insight into how the Blackcaps selection panel are thinking and how they view certain domestic players.
Let's not get carried away here as I'm cautious to go all-in on saying that a good performance in this three-dayer starting next Friday will see any of these players slide straight into the Blackcaps. Henry Nicholls will skipper this team and I'm of the view that he should have never been dropped from the Blackcaps Test team any way.
Having made a notable score in his last outing, Nicholls should already be jotted down in the Blackcaps Test squad to face India while Martin Guptill will likely get a final opportunity in home conditions to right his ship/Test career. This means that while Jeet Raval and Dean Brownlie will open and kinda go to battle for a Test spot, it would be more a case of continuing to build their selection CV as opposed to making or breaking it.
An interesting note in the Test opener situation; since February 5th this year Raval has hit two centuries, a double hundy and a half-century, Brownlie has hit three half-centuries and a hundy while Auckland opener Michael Guptill-Bunce has hit five half-centuries and two centuries. Four notable scores from Raval and Brownlie, seven from Guptill-Bunce.
I was also interested in who was selected as the wicket-keeper as there's a fair collection of handy wicket-keepers under 27yrs in Plunket Shield cricket. Wellington's Tom Blundell gets the nod and while I would have gone with Tim Seifert, I'm completely happy in just knowing how the selectors are thinking here with the key point being that we have options. This also raises a rather strange situation as - assuming Blackcaps are playing domestic cricket - Blundell would play second-fiddle to Luke Ronchi for Wellington and Seifert would play second-fiddle to BJ Watling.
Blundell and Seifert are the hottest young keepers in Aotearoa, but in a full-strength domestic scenario they may not wear the keeping gloves and might not even make their respective teams.
Spinning duties go to Todd Astle who is dominating the domestic scene and along with Colin de Grandhomme, they will offer all-round abilities. Astle will play as the No.1 spinner but he's been on fire with the bat while de Grandhomme is a handy fourth-seamer who will give it a whack with the bat.
The selections of Bharat Popli, Will Young and a three-pronged seam attack of Jacob Duffy, Ed Nuttall and Lockie Ferguson are what really excites me. Popli and Young will be key features in the middle order and at the moment they are the two most promising batsmen in Aotearoa, although they need to pounce at opportunities like this to keep building their case for future selection.
Popli and Young lead a young wave of kiwi batsmen (including Ken McClure, Rob O'Donnell, Mark Chapman, Ben Smith and Josh Finnie) while it now appears as though Duffy, Ferguson and Nuttall are viewed as leading a healthy stock of young seamers (including Kyle Jamieson, Zak Gibson and Ben Wheeler).
Duffy bowls right-arm mediums, with a splash of out-swing and he's been doing the domestic rounds for a few years while Nuttall is a lefty, resembling Trent Boult. People who get their jollies about Adam Milne's pace, should pay attention to Ferguson as he's arguably the quickest domestic bowler and has a First-Class bowling average of 25.55.
Those five (Popli, Young, Nuttall, Duffy, Ferguson) form a group who I'll be keeping a close eye on when this game rolls around. I'm less concerned about the immediate context with regards to the Blackcaps and more concerned with how these players - who will have a chance to step up to the Blackcaps in the next few years - perform against a Pakistan side high on confidence.