On Friday, Aotearoa's Blackcaps embark on the nek phase of their World T20 journey. A few months back, Aotearoa were in Sri Lanka where they snared a 2-1 series win and returned to the land of the long white cloud where the series was essentially tied at 2-2 with England and the extra over thing fell in favour of the Poms. Now India have arrived to play five T20I and it's not too often I'm super hyped for a T20I series, but with World T20 looming and all sorts of funky little Blackcaps T20I wrinkles - I'm super hyped.

Upon completion of a weird ODI series vs Australia, the bro Virat Kohli said this via Cricinfo...

That's exactly what I want as well. The only way we are going to learn about this Blackcaps T20I group and who is desperate to command World T20 selection, is for India to put the kiwis under the pump. There were glimpses of this in the England series, as some Blackcaps responded well and other Blackcaps struggled to differentiate themselves from a rather competitive pack of World T20 hopefuls.

My intention in writing this is to set some context specifically for T20 cricket, which stems from a focus on T20 cricket given it's the major format at this moment. Whether it's moving quickly between formats or a complete disregard for what has gone down in the T20 arena recently, many of the ideas or narratives around the Blackcaps T20I team are out-dated or simply false. Hopefully, zoning in on T20 numbers can help set things up for your viewing experience and the eagerness of Kohli to shake things up in Aotearoa is set up nicely to crash into a few players who are already under pressure.

To start with, here are some basic but crucial numbers for players in this Blackcaps T20I squad from 2019. I focus on the basic average and strike-rate/runs-per-over combination which tells a simple story for fans and while we could definitely get into more complex numbers, the point is that all of this is easily digested.

T20 cricket is a wee bit different, so averages tend to be lower and strike-rates higher for batsmen as an example. When viewing this numbers, perhaps use my baselines as a guide and then suss out your own opinions from there. My T20 baselines for batsmen are 25+ average and 120+ strike-rate, I'd consider that a solid performer and any average up around 30, or over 30 with a strike-rate over 130 is damn good.

Again, we can get into the nitty-gritty about batting roles etc but this is a very basic guide. For bowlers, averages below 20 and an rpo less than 8 is fabuous. Averaging between 20-30 with an rpo between 8-10 is alright, anything over than and you're struggling.

I've sorted this from best to worst and by skillsets...

Bat

Ross Taylor 11 games - 27.60avg/125.45sr.

Colin de Grandhomme 11 games - 27.36avg/156.77sr.

Kane Williamson 3 games - 27avg/135sr.

Martin Guptill 8 games - 23.57/163.36.

Tim Seifert 12 games - 23avg/138.69sr.

Colin Munro 12 games - 22.41avg/154.59sr.

Daryl Mitchell 9 games - 16.16avg/122.78sr.

Ball

Mitchell Santner 12 games -15.40avg/7.33rpo.

Daryl Mitchell 9 games - 17.80avg/9.70rpo.

Tim Southee 12 games - 27.08avg/7.47rpo.

Ish Sodhi 11 games - 35avg/10.04rpo.

Blair Tickner 3 games - 36.33avg/9.08rpo.

Scott Kuggeleijn 9 games - 52avg/9.68rpo.

To make it even more simple, I've classified lads into Good/Meh for 2019. This judgement factors in number of games played, possible expectations for that specific player and their stats, while those not mentioned are chillin' in-between. Remember this is merely my judgement based on the above and personally, I'm sympathetic to those who are early in their Blackcaps journey, only played a few games...

Good 2019

Bat: Ross Taylor, Colin de Grandhomme. Ball: Mitchell Santner, Daryl Mitchell, Tim Southee.

Meh 2019

Bat: Martin Guptill, Colin Munro. Ball: Ish Sodhi, Scott Kuggeleijn.

Below is the same thing, but for players in this Blackcaps T20I squad who played in the Super Smash. I didn't include Tom Bruce in the group above because he only played one T20I game in 2019, but he's here below...

Bat

Martin Guptill 10inns, 403 runs @ 44.77avg/142.40sr.

Tim Seifert 8inns, 323 runs @ 40.37avg/143.55sr.

Daryl Mitchell 8inns, 219 runs @ 31.28avg/146.97sr.

Tom Bruce 10inns, 273 runs @ 27.30avg/135.82sr.

Colin Munro 10inns, 220 runs @ 22avg/133.33sr.

Scott Kuggeleijn 7inns, 105 runs @ 21avg/141.89sr.

Ball

Hamish Bennett 11inns, 40.3ov, 17w @ 17.17avg/7.20rpo.

Daryl Mitchell 8inns, 20ov, 10w @ 19avg/9.50rpo.

Blair Tickner 8inns, 29ov, 11w @ 26avg/9.86rpo.

Ish Sodhi 10inns, 38.5ov, 10w @ 29.40avg/7.57rpo.

Scott Kuggeleijn 10inns, 39ov, 9w @ 40.66avg/9.38rpo.

Good Super Smash

Bat: Martin Guptill, Tim Seifert, Daryl Mitchell.

Ball: Hamish Bennett, Daryl Mitchell.

Meh Super Smash

Bat: Colin Munro.

Ball: Scott Kuggeleijn.

From here, I've got a couple notes from this little journey through the weeds...

Martin Guptill's back mofos.

Colin Munro has doubled down on 2019 struggles with Super Smash woes.

Ish Sodhi hit a nice plateau in the Super Smash after struggling in 2019.

Tim Seifert found runs in the Super Smash, keeping himself ahead of a strong chasing pack.

Scott Kuggeleijn averaged 50-odd with the ball in 2019 and 40 in the Super Smash - not good.

Aotearoa's best T20I batsman in 2019 was matua Rossco.

Forecasting towards the series vs India, Munro obviously has a flashing alarm above his head and this is easily key focus point for Aotearoa. India showed last summer that they are sublime at executing plans and skills, hence I'm eager to see how India put Munro under even more pressure throughout this series.

India will also have a recipe to deal with Santner and Sodhi. What this recipe is, will be fascinating in itself as they could be aggressive and attack the spinners, or they could show a level of respect and look to target other areas of the Blackcaps bowling attack. The latter is a real possibility considering that lads like Kuggeleijn, Bennett and Tickner will need to bowl overs and while Mitchell's proved to be a nifty operator, this is a different challenge.

To finish, here is a group that I consider locked in for World T20 selection...

Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Martin Guptill, Tim Southee, Colin de Grandhomme.

Everyone else sits at various points across the spectrum. For example, Santner's nearly considered a lock but he should probably do some good stuff vs India. At the other end, someone like Munro definitely needs to do some good stuff vs India.

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Peace and love 27.