Aotearoa 'A' vs West Indies: The Squad
If you're reading this, you know that Devon Conway has already kicked down the Blackcaps door to find Will Young meditating in patience as he waits on the stars to align and present a Blackcaps debut in any format. Both Conway and Young have been named in the Aotearoa A squad to face West Indies and while that's cool, there is minimal funk with these two lads and the kiwi cricket funk resides in all the other blokes selected.
The selection of Henry Nicholls is perhaps the most telling as far as Blackcaps Test antics go, given that Nicholls is yet to play a Plunket Shield game this season. The last time we saw Nicholls play cricket, was an ODI vs Australia back in March and while Nicholls was excellent in Aotearoa's Ford Trophy where he scored 120, 62 and 55 in three consecutive games, followed by scores of 78, 41 and 80 in three ODIs vs India, the long form stuff from Nicholls wasn't quite in tune with the white ball stuff.
Nicholls scored 36 runs in 3inns vs India in the Test series earlier this year and for wider context as to how Nicholls' Test career is looking, there could be reason to pay attention if you are frothing over the prospect of Conway or Young getting Blackcaps game time. None of these numbers below are bad, nor do they present a case of Nicholls' form falling off a cliff, yet they do lay the baseline for a possible entry point for Conway or Young...
2016: 24.23avg.
2017: 41.88avg.
2018: 73.11avg.
2019: 32.81avg.
2020: 18avg.
There is a clear peak in that five-year span and some level of a dip in Nicholls' run-scoring. We haven't seen Nicholls bat in the Plunket Shield, so there's no new information as to forecasting how Nicholls may perform this summer and this 'A' fixture will be a nice re-introduction to Nicholls.
As we know, Aotearoa's Blackcaps don't embrace Test cricket spin bowling in Aotearoa as they don't really need to. In this Aotearoa A squad, there is no specialist spinner selected and the spin options are Otago Volts and Netherlands international Michael Rippon as well as Wellington Firebirds youngster Rachin Ravindra; both of whom are capable batsmen with Ravindra primarily an opening batsman and Rippon being as good with the bat as he is with the ball last season, plus he hit a century to start this season.
Ish Sodhi and Will Somerville are the only Blackcaps Test mix spinners who have been playing Plunket Shield to start this summer. Ajaz Patel has been out injured, while Mitchell Santner has been busy getting through his two IPL games. One factor here could be an intention for these spinners to play more for their respective domestic teams instead of giving West Indies a taste of what to expect, although there is also a genuine chance that no spinner is selected in the Blackcaps Test squad.
Sodhi and Santner will be preparing for the T20I series though, which starts on November 27th while the second Aotearoa A four-dayer starts on November 26th. That basically means that the best T20I players for Aotearoa haven't been selected for the A fixtures, while lads like Conway or Nicholls could be called up after game one. That's rather important in all of this as well and while it's easy to view this squad as a guide to the second tier of fringe-Blackcaps, it's also just kinda the best of the rest.
For example, Glenn Phillips isn't selected. Tim Seifert, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Bruce, Colin Munro and Scott Kuggeleijn were all in the T20I squad that faced India last summer and apart from Munro, all those lads could be viewed as prime Aotearoa 'A' selections. Mark Chapman played an ODI vs India last summer after back to back centuries for Aotearoa A vs India A in a 50-over game then a four-dayer and he's done enough to be in this wider conversation, so for someone like Chapman it's more about intrigue as to where he fits i.
Where the bulk of the funk settles is with the seam bowling group: Jacob Duffy, Michael Rae, Ben Sears, Nathan Smith and Blair Tickner. Sean Solia is currently ranked 6th for Plunket Shield bowlers and Duffy is the only bowler in this squad who has more wickets than Solia, even though Solia opens the batting for Auckland Aces. That is reason to embrace whatever role Solia is given and based on his work with the ball, he deserves to be mentioned in this group.
All of these bowlers warrant selection and the battle between Duffy, Sears and Tickner will help sort out some seamer landscape clutter. Duffy finished as the leading Plunket Shield bowler last summer with 22w @ 22.86avg/3.39rpo and he's backed it up so far this summer with 17w @ 26.82avg/2.62rpo, making Duffy the most dominant young-ish of the past few seasons. Then we have Tickner who got through just one game of Plunket Shield cricket and seems to have been selected as a route for game time for someone who has already cracked the Blackcaps.
Sears? Well, by all accounts he is the fastest bowler on the domestic circuit and we all know how kiwis love a fast bowling fetish. This season, Sears has taken 4w @ 37.50avg/3.70rpo and while Sears blatantly permeates potential, Aotearoa isn't exactly short of other options. This is where we have to keep it real about what is happening with this Aotearoa A squad as that yarn about Blackcaps T20I players who are missing, flows into the general seam bowling picture.
None of Canterbury's seamers have been selected, even though Will Williams and Fraser Sheat are both averaging under 10 in the Plunket Shield. Ed Nuttall has been in various A squads previously and has been all good, just a smidge behind his Canterbury comrades as another seamer who could have been in contention. Maybe it's because these two games are in Queenstown, down the road for the Otago lads or whatever else - I dunno.
More experienced seamers like Doug Bracewell and Ollie Newton have been solid, at the very least as good as the guys selected and there would be no issues with their selection. All of which as me pondering how this is more about fitting different puzzle piece into the summer of kiwi cricket puzzle.
When you check the headlines and see Conway, Young and Nicholls named, this Aotearoa A squad instantly fells like a 'Blackcaps 2nd 11' situation. Based off what is happening in the Plunket Shield and how these different puzzle pieces fit together, this Aotearoa A squad is more of a mix and match group; not quite the 'Aotearoa 11' team where fringe domestic players are used to give touring teams game time and not quite a strict 2nd 11.
From my perspective in writing about all kiwi cricket matters, this presents a tricky task of assessing performances in the two games vs West Indies within the wider context. This is low key beautiful as well as there are many players who are fringe-Blackcaps who will either be in Blackcaps squads or in domestic cricket during this window of late November to early December and that simply means lots of funky pockets of kiwi cricket shenanigans to explore.
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Peace and love.