If I had been promoted - via my infinite cricketing wisdom - to be the Blackcaps head-hauncho, Lockie Ferguson wouldn't have represented Aotearoa yet. Obviously no one is going to turn down the opportunity to represent their nation, however the decision to hand Ferguson his international debut, his grand opportunity, in a format that is quite clearly second fiddle to Ferguson's four-day exploits, was strange.

Perhaps this is why Ferguson didn't set the ODI world on fire in his seven ODI games last summer. Perhaps that's also because Ferguson was another low key victim of the yo-yo selection policy; Ferguson was routinely dropped after an average performance instead of being given the chance to bounce back. Regardless, it's silly to view Ferguson as an ODI bowler when Ferguson largely earned his ODI opportunities through consistently dominant Plunket Shield performances.

When Ferguson steams through a batting line up as he did against Otago last week, everyone pays attention. Suddenly Ferguson becomes the trendy topic, despite there being nothing trendy about Ferguson's Plunket Shield work and he has earned a career First-Class average of 24.04 through blatant consistency;

2014/15 - 21w @ 23.38avg/3.40rpo.
2015/16 - 31w @ 22.12avg/3.06rpo.
2016/17 - 30w @ 22.03avg/2.87rpo.
2017/18 - 19w @ 17.57avg/3.83rpo.

Ferguson's stats also suggest that scoring runs off him isn't all that difficult. Obviously when you step up to the international arena, batsmen are better and eat up pace bowling for brekky (hence it's weird to celebrate fast bowlers just because they bowl fast), so Ferguson's ODI runs-per-over of 8.46 is understandable. So is his 8rpo in his lone T20I, yet this isn't all that different to Ferguson's 8.10rpo in T20 cricket (domestic T20 + IPL) and when you peep Ferguson's 5.97rpo in List-A cricket (mainly Ford Trophy) there's a trend of batsmen being able to dispatch Ferguson fairly easily; unless their all edges.

From that you could say that Ferguson lacks control, but the dude hovers around 3rpo in FC cricket. There's a variety of reasons as to why Ferguson is more expensive in non-FC formats, but I'd need to watch copious footage to really nail the reason why. I love the fact that Ferguson's best work comes in the difficult format, in a format that comes with lazy stereotype of fast bowlers lacking stamina, or accuracy. Ferguson not only takes wickets, he bowls plenty of overs and is economical in four-day cricket.

Ferguson is averaging 21.77 overs/innings so far this season, an increase on last season's 17.64o/inns. In 2015/16 he averaged 16o/inns and 2014/15 saw him start off this curve at 14.42o/inns. The quality comes as Ferguson's workload has increased, yet his output has increased and he has got better with more overs. Many bowlers can average 23.38 from 14o/inns, it's completely different to average in the early 20s from 20o/inns and when you also factor in that domestic batsmen know all about Ferguson now, this is kinda freaky how dominant Ferguson has been.

As I highlighted in the Domestic Cricket Daily, Ferguson moves the ball into right-handed batsmen at pace. Derek de Boorder has been a consistent presence for Otago throughout Ferguson's career thus far and he had no answer for Ferguson's typical movement at pace - ok, such movement isn't typical but de Boorder would have known this ball was coming back into him yet stopping it is completely different.

Just as Rob Nicol, Ferguson's former captain at Auckland. Nicol would know Ferguson's style better than anyone, yet Ferguson had Nicol's wicket in either innings:

This Blackcaps Mixer is all about how I see these lads fitting into the Blackcaps Test and ODI teams, so how where does Ferguson fit in? Fuck knows and to be honest I don't care. I just want to keep watching Ferguson dominate in domestic cricket and take any opportunities (chur the Kiwi County Tour!) that come his way. Ferguson is the most under-rated cricketer in Aotearoa - honest to Jah - and I have zero confidence that Ferguson will be handled wisely.
Again, I don't care and I take my cricketing pleasure from knowing that if Ferguson continues on this current path, the cricketing world will be his oyster. The four-day cricketing world, that is.

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Peace and love 27.