A steady flow of Test cricket in Aotearoa presents fresh challenges and the natural variable of injuries is going to add some funk to the Blackcaps Test team for their second Test against England. Trent Boult and Colin de Grandhomme are out of action, which will provide an opportunity for Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson and Todd Astle, as well as Daryl Mitchell who joins the squad.

Given what we have experienced over the past two weeks, there ain't any surprises in no one talking about Henry getting a crack in the 1st 11. All the attention is still zoned in on Ferguson and whether he will get his Test debut or not, which feels likely although not instead of Henry but alongside Henry. As chief selector of the Niche Cache, I'd stack the bowling department with Tim Southee, Neil Wagner, Mitchell Santner, Ferguson and Henry; back the batsmen to do their job.

An alternative would be to bring in Todd Astle ahead of either Ferguson or Henry. I'm definitely partial to a splash of two-spinner action in Aotearoa, if the spinners are better options than the seamers and with Santner doing a service-able job, I don't have Astle ahead of Henry or Ferguson. Remember that Santner or even Henry/Ferguson don't have to dominate, they just need to play their role and chip in on a strong team performance.

Mitchell feels unlikely to get a crack on his home deck, however it would be lovely if that were the case. In replacing de Grandhomme, Mitchell offers a very similar package to de Grandhomme with accuracy and control offered via his medium-pace. This follows the trend of the Blackcaps bringing players through their T20I squad into the Blackcaps system as Mitchell recently showed his prowess with bat and ball in T20I series. From a fan perspective though, Test cricketers aren't selected from their T20I performances and Mitchell's earned this call up through consistently solid efforts in Plunket Shield.

Last summer Daryl Mitchell was the SKYCITY Northern Knights' Young Player of the Year. This season he's picked up right where he left off, scoring his maiden first-class century, leading the run-scoring and averaging over 54 in the Plunket Shield and, after just three Ford Trophy rounds in which the Knights are unbeaten, has already pocketed two half-centuries, including 95 in the first round.

In his lone Plunket Shield appearance this season, Mitchell hit 170* for Northern Districts Knights. Having played nine seasons of First-Class cricket, Mitchell has a century in six of those campaigns and as a middle-order batsman who won't quite get the same opportunities as a comrade in the top-order, banging out a century nearly every summer is a great record.

Overall, Mitchell averages 35.65 with the bat and 33.57 with the ball in FC cricket. De Grandhomme averages 37.25 (bat) and 29.38 (ball), which reflects where these two lads are at in their careers as one's breaking through and the other is now an established international cricketer. Mitchell does have the scope though to bridge that gap to de Grandhomme.

Interestingly - perhaps way more funkier than the make up of this 1st 11 - Mitchell has again been given the nod ahead of Jimmy Neesham. After the World Cup, I wrote about the intrigue around Ferguson and Neesham as they move forward from a nice World Cup winter. Neesham was overlooked for all formats in Sri Lanka and was then rotated in and out of the Blackcaps T20I team against England; Neesham and Mitchell played three of the five games each.

Neesham only played one Plunket Shield game after a Caribbean T20 excursion, prior to the T20I series vs England and then Neesham played in the Aotearoa A game vs England. In those two games, Neesham scored 20, 0 and 9, while taking 2 wickets in 3inns bowled. Both Neesham and Mitchell played in that Aotearoa A game, getting through rather similar performances but Mitchell had an edge after scores of 19* and 22, while taking 2w @ 3.40rpo vs Neesham's 1w @ 4rpo. Too close for any major insight, other than Mitchell being promoted from #7 to #4 as Neesham stayed at #5.

Maybe the selectors view their batting as rather similar, but a bit more CDG-like control from Mitchell has given him the nod. Since Neesham's debut, de Grandhomme has emerged as the leading Test all-rounder in Aotearoa and now it appears as though Mitchell as also leap-frogged Neesham in this niche. Also interesting is that all three are fairly good across all formats and this battle for selection will flow throughout our summer.

Bang an ad to support The Niche Cache, or we’re on Patreon! Where you can support the Niche Cache directly and join the whanau.

Peace and love 27.