It may not look like it at the top of kiwi cricket with an extremely settled Blackcaps bowling stable, but there is a delightful wave of bowlers steadily building their cases for higher honours. Having spin the yarn about my top five most interesting kiwi batsmen for this upcoming summer, now it's the turn of those bowlers and this bracket of bowlers who aren't quite fringe-Blackcaps but have shown great signs is generally, of huge interest to me.

Kyle Jamieson - Canterbury

Blair Tickner - Central Districts Stags

Logan van Beek - Wellington Firebirds

As I worked my way through possible options, a trio of bowlers stood out. Not solely because of their exciting talents as seam prospects, but also because they are all in a fairly similar circumstance; very good last season and I'm interested in how they back that up. This has resulted in me lumping Logan van Beek, Blair Tickner and Kyle Jamieson together as I'd be repeating my blurb three times for each of them.

All three have been rewarded for their efforts with selection in the Aotearoa 'A' squad that will tour United Arab Emirates, which immediately puts them in the mix to be part of the two players who will be added to the Blackcaps ODI and T20 squads. This is about the domestic summer though and the A tour sets the scene nicely for Plunket Shield and Ford Trophy cricket for these lads.

Canterbury's six foot eight, 21-year-old pace bowler takes his maiden first-class five wicket bag in the Plunket Shield, brought to you by Budget Rental. Report: http://www.blackcaps.co.nz/match-reports/stags-duel-with-canterbury-at-saxton-oval

Canterbury seamer Jamieson's main hope will be to stay healthy as he's consistently battled injuries. Jamieson played two Plunket Shield games last summer, taking 7w @ 21.85avg/3.32rpo and six Ford Trophy games last summer, taking 6w @ 30.83avg/5.02rpo. Jamieson needs a full season to really show what's capable of and if healthy, Jamieson will play a big role in leading Canterbury's young seam attack - especially when Matt Henry is on Blackcaps duty.

There is a slightly difference between Jamieson and the other two in that Jamieson wasn't as dominant as van Beek and Tickner, via his lack of games. Jamieson has been dominant in flashes, without consistent game time though he can't build that up into a genuine breakout campaign. That's what tickles my fancy with Jamieson specifically as he could be the bowler of the summer, the guy that you don't know much about before the season and then as you read the Niche Cache's domestic cricket content, you might get sick of hearing about Jamieson; he's tall, moves the ball and when ever he bowls, he tends to take wickets.

Tickner and van Beek were among the best bowlers in both Plunket Shield and Ford Trophy cricket last summer. Tickner was 3rd in in Ford Trophy wickets (15w in 9inns @ 28.26avg/5rpo) and 9th in Plunket Shield wickets (30w in 17inns @ 29.03avg/3.75rpo). His lively pace and bounce troubled domestic batsmen and he was Central District's best seamer in either competition.

Having played a few seasons, Tickner burst into the best domestic seamer discussion last summer and like Tickner, van Beek has been steadily going about his business for a number of years. Then, after moving up to Wellington from Canterbury, van Beek went hundies and finished as the 2nd best wicket-taker in Plunket Shield, the leading seamer with 40w in 14inns @ 14.47avg/3rpo.

Logan van Beek Hat-trick - Canterbury vs Wellington ~ Plunket Shield 2018 - Match played at Hagley Oval, Christchurch Batsmen dismissed were Chad Bowes, Michael Pollard and Ken McClure

I wondered if van Beek might benefit from a change in scenery, although I didn't expect him to be so dominant for the Firebirds last summer. He was solid in the Ford Trophy as well, taking 11w in 7inns @ 29.18avg/4.92rpo and like Tickner, van Beek was Wellington's best seamer.

My interest sits in how these two back that up this summer. Van Beek will again form a dangerous combination with Hamish Bennett for Wellington, while Tickner has no choice but to perform as the Stags have all sorts of seam bowling competition; Seth Rance, Bevan Small, Ben Wheeler, Navin Patel, Dough Bracewell, Ryan McCone and Willem Ludick.

Scott Kuggeleijn - Northern Districts Knights

For a long time, Scott Kuggeleijn was the cricket hipster's favourite player. He racked up big numbers with his hostile seamers for the Knights, setting up base at the top of the wicket-taking rankings in all domestic competitions for a bunch seasons and scoring a few runs in the process. Kuggeleijn demanded further attention from the Blackcaps through his weight of wickets and with selection in the A squad, nothing appears to have changed.

Well, other than Kuggeleijn taking 7w in 8inns @ 52.28avg/5.54rpo in the Ford Trophy. Kuggeleijn's Plunket Shield campaign was a lot better, taking 30w in 14inns @ 26.43avg/3.59rpo. Compare Kuggeleijn's work to those seamers who took more Plunket Shield wickets than him (van Beek, Bennett, Matt McEwan, Iain McPeake, Joel Baker, Lockie Ferguson) though and Kuggeleijn's the only one with an average over 25; Kuggeleijn, Baker and McEwan are the only bowlers in that group who averaged over 20.

Scott Kuggeleijn takes his first five-for for the SKYCITY Northern Knights, against the Otago Volts in Dunedin February 2014. It was Kuggs' second first-class five-for in the Plunket Shield, having taken one last season for the Wellington Firebirds.

That is to say that Plunket Shield seamers dominated last summer and with Kuggeleijn's success in past seasons offering some context, last summer was a bit of a dip for Kuggeleijn. This could be narrowed down to Kuggeleijn not being considered as one of the best, like top-two or three seamers in domestic cricket, after he had been for a long time. It feels as though Kuggeleijn got over-taken last summer by the likes of van Beek and Tickner, while the emergence of ND's young seam crew and young seamers around Aotearoa means that there's pressure on Kuggeleijn to stay in the best seamer mix.

Kuggeleijn had nailed a bowling niche via his skiddy pace and lower order batting. Now we have Lockie Ferguson and Adam Milne who bowl fast, Tickner's hostile as well and there is no shortage of bowlers who can genuinely bat in the #6/7 spot; Jamieson, van Beek, Milne, Ben Wheeler, Doug Bracewell, Jimmy Neesham and Corey Anderson.

Not only did Kuggeleijn's productivity dip, there are now other cricketers who can do what he does. It's purely up to Kuggeleijn to perform at such a level that he can fight off those challengers as a premier domestic seamer and despite being named in the A squad, there is no shortage of seamers in that squad who will take overs off Kuggeleijn. This will be a huge summer for Kuggeleijn as he tries to stay relevant in the domestic cricket landscape.

Blake Coburn - Canterbury

There was some drama in Canterbury's contracted player list as Tim Johnston wasn't offered a contract, after Johnston had another solid domestic season last summer. Johnston finished 2nd in Ford Trophy wickets for spinners, but was over-shadowed in the Plunket Shield by the emergence of Blake Coburn and Theo van Woerkom. With Todd Astle also in the mix, Canterbury have no shortage of spinners and while Johnston can still earn game time, it looks as though Coburn will play a major role for the Cantabs this summer.

Coburn is more interesting to me than van Woerkom because Coburn offers a point of difference with his left-arm leggies. There aren't many of those knocking around the domestic circuit and with 15w in 8inns in his debut Plunket Shield campaign, Coburn has shown glimpses of some potential.

Sealing a spot in Canterbury's Plunket Shield team consistently will be the first task for Coburn as he'll have to work around Astle and fight off the challenge of van Woerkom who offers safer left-arm tweakers. That's one aspect of my interest in Coburn, the other is the scope for Coburn in white-ball cricket as he didn't play any Ford Trophy games last summer and Canterbury instead relied heavily on Johnston and Astle.

There is an opportunity here for Coburn to establish himself as a starting spinner for Canterbury, with Astle breaking into the Blackcaps and leaving a spinning hole for Canterbury and Johnston out of favour. What Coburn does with that opportunity will be of gerat intrigue for me and I'll be keeping a close eye on Coburn's performances this summer.

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