Last season's top run-scorer in the Plunket Shield was Northern Districts' Bharat Popli, a bloke halfway through his second decade on this planet. Next-best was Central Districts' Ben Smith who is of a similar vintage and along with fine seasons from Auckland's Rob O'Donnell, Canterbury's Ken McClure and Smith's fellow young guns at CD Tom Bruce and Will Young. While the presence of your usual suspect of veterans was still evident, the tinge of youth basked in run-scoring glory.

Oh how things change. This season the top-10 leading run-scorers (as of 3pm March 17 - Plunket Shield games are ongoing) are; Brad Wilson, Luke Woodcock, Rob Nicol, Andrew Ellis, Greg Hay, Tom Bruce, Colin Munro, Chad Bowes, Michael Papps and Tom Blundell. Of these 10 blokes, only Bruce, Bowes and Blundell are younger than 30yrs and their last names all start with 'B' - cool huh?

Otago's veteran opener Brad Wilson sits at the top of the run-scoring list right now and regardless of where he finishes come season's end, Wilson has enjoyed two tremendous Plunket Shield seasons. Last summer Wilson averaged 46.63, creeping along with a strike-rate of 38.85 but no one hit more centuries than Wilson's three (many also hit three) and only Popli hit more half-centuries than Wilson's seven.

Wilson averages 49.33 this season and has bolstered his strike-rate up to 43.14 with two centuries and three half-centuries. At 31-years-old, Wilson is in no way, shape or form past being in Blackcaps contention and as Jeet Raval has only recently been given the Test opener's job, Wilson's career First-Class average of 33.82 is well below his averages in the Plunket Shield in the last two seasons; Wilson has kinda just clocked Plunket Shield batting.

Given the current look of the run-scorers list, it's surprising that Wilson, Woodcock and Hay weren't really graced with much of a chance at the Test opener's gig. This is not to say that Raval doesn't deserve his Blackcaps spot and I'm happy with what he's doing, especially on the back of averaging 55.71 last season. Raval has a Plunket Shield average of 36.37 this season and that's decent again, just one half-century in eight innings' though but the dude is scoring Test cricket runs so all good.

Just don't expect some hot youngster to get promoted if something should happen to Raval or Tom Latham. Three of the top-five run-scorers (Wilson, Woodcock and Hay) are openers - Rob Nicol and Andrew Ellis operate in the middle order - and they don't get more grizzly than these veterans. Throw in Woodcock's opening partner for Wellington Papps, who his currently hitting centuries for fun and averages 46 this season and it looks as though we've got experienced blokes who could step in to do a job for their country if called upon.

Tell someone that Brad Wilson is arguably the best Plunket Shield batsman over the past two seasons and the reply will be - who's that?

Tell someone that we have a bloke like Greg Hay who is 32-years-old and averages 42.06 as a Plunket Shield opener and the reply will be - get him in there! Or who the fuck is that?

I find this interesting because the Blackcaps have moved towards selecting older players who understand their craft, who have seen all that domestic cricket can throw at them and have developed a technique based on seasons of trial and error. This trend suits the artillary we have in that opening-batsman role and it's great that the majority of the very best run-scorers this season are openers and that five of the top-10 are openers.

The wildcard here is Canterbury's Chad Bowes. He's not only a wildcard because he's holding it down for the young-openers, but he's another bloke who would draw a 'who the fuck's that?' response when you tell someone that there's a 24-year-old who currently averages 59 this season. Bowes has hit three centuries in six games/nine innings' and he's another South African who is making waves on the kiwi cricket scene.

Bowes is 24yrs now and made his FC debut for KwaZulu-Natal way back in 2011, but the one-day format is where he enjoyed most of his success back in South Africa with an average of 40.85. That pours poo all over his career FC average of 29.13, however it's clear that Bowes is enjoying his move to Aotearoa.

Aotearoa's history with battlin' Test openers is almost as illustrious as our history with gentle seamers and so there's always the concern that the jump from domestic cricket to Test cricket will be too much for the veteran openers who are dominating domestic cricket. The number of veteran openers is however reason to be optimistic with the competition for the spot behind Raval and Latham will only ensure that whoever gets the gig, is the best of the best.