Aotearoa vs West Indies: Guide To The Blackcaps Test Squad
Despite most of Aotearoa's Blackcaps Test squad playing in the Plunket Shield to start this summer, the squad features blokes coming into Test cricket from all different angles. This week has been rather hectic as far as absorbing kiwi cricket information goes and while I've pondered a slight lack of planning and preparation ahead of the double T20 World Cup banger coming up, there is beauty in two of Aotearoa's greatest cricketers ever being put on ice for Test cricket.
The absence of Kane Williamson and Trent Boult from the Blackcaps T20I squad to face West Indies is barely news-worthy as we all love Test cricket. Williamson and Boult are undoubtedly among Aotearoa's 11 best T20 cricketers and should stroll into both World Cup squads, plus they've just come off an Indian Premier League where they were the only kiwis to play more than 10 games. Is there any need to squeeze Williamson and Boult into a T20I series vs West Indies? Absolutely not.
Obviously, neither Williamson nor Boult has played in the Plunket Shield's first stanza. Ajaz Patel has also missed the Plunket Shield's first stanza via injury and the relevance of this depends on what conditions await the Blackcaps at Seddon Park in Hamilton and Wellington's Basin Reserve; one track embraces spin and the other is dominated by seam.
Aotearoa has often played without a spinner in Aotearoa and this amounts to a tasty hangi as there are a variety of different factors being cooked under the earth. There's no form to gauge where Patel is at and the Blackcaps embrace a seam-heavy line up, although Seddon Park may present a slower turning track for Patel.
Everyone loves the yarn about spin bowlers not being overly effective in Aotearoa and as the Niche Cache explored earlier this year, this is more about kiwi spinners struggling while the tourists go alright. Patel has taken 22 Test wickets @ 33.21avg and none of those 22 wickets were taken in Aotearoa - does that mean Patel sucks at spin bowling or that the seamers always do the job?
I reckon the latter idea and it's fairly obvious. With such a dominant seam attack when playing in Aotearoa, playing without a spinner isn't exactly a negative reflection on whatever spinner is named in the squad. What we can gather from the Blackcaps decision makers is that Patel's still viewed as the tidiest option, despite not playing Plunket Shield and at the very least Patel has put up improving numbers from 2018 to 2019; 13w @ 35.84avg and then 9w @ 26.88avg.
Colin de Grandhomme is the other injury concern and similar to Patel, any absence of de Grandhomme should be absorbed rather easily. Missing both Patel and de Grandhomme might get tricky, however the Blackcaps can roll with another batsman in Will Young and/or call up Daryl Mitchell as they did for the Seddon Park Test vs England last summer. De Grandhomme played two Plunket Shield games and didn't take a wicket, while putting up scores of 23, 60 and 23 with an overall strike-rate of 98.14. That translates to de Grandhomme doing what de Grandhomme does.
Mitchell has scored a century in the Plunket Shield and has 17w @ 14.23avg in 103.4 overs for Canterbury, on the back of making his Test debut with a halfie last summer. Any concern around de Grandhomme should be off-set by Mitchell providing the 'horses for courses' replacement, or the stars finally aligning for Will Young.
Young has had a solid first stanza in the Plunket Shield without being super duper amazing and for Central Districts Stags, they haven't had the best start to the summer by their standards. Young is the leading Stags batsman in the Plunket Shield, ranked 14th in total runs and Seth Rance is the only Stag in the top-10 for runs or wickets - obviously Rance takes wickets. Young does have a century and a bunch of starts, scoring 110* of his 199 runs in one knock and a couple not-outs give him a lovely average.
The buzz around Conway is legit and worthy, although based on what I know about the Blackcaps Test unit there is little reason to expect Conway to immediately leap-frog Young in the Test frame. Whether it's Tom Blundell, Matt Henry or Patel patiently waiting to bowl a couple overs, the Blackcaps under Kane Williamson like to let blokes simmer in their squads. While Young should have made his Test debut before Aotearoa's Muslim community showed us all how to spread love and positive vibes, he's still scoring more than enough run to warrant his current position as the next up batsmen for this series.
A long time is compressed into an easy to digest snippet because Young missed a lot of cricket via injury over the past year or so, yet even though there is heavy inconsistency in Young's playing time, he has scored runs across various formats. That started with two hundreds and a halfie in the pre-World Cup tour of Australia, then Young's last 10 games stretching back to January this year look like this...
62 - Ford Trophy.
54, 26, 2 - Tour games vs India A (four-day).
68, 17*, 1, 22, 10, 133*, 43*, 9, 23, 14, 110* - Plunket Shield.
Chuck everything Young did to get so close to a Test debut, then what he's done since and Young still deserves a first crack at Blackcaps batting vacancy. Of course, Conway is a run-scoring monster across all formats and this isn't about what Conway is or isn't doing, the Blackcaps will give the first opportunity to Young and as kiwi cricket fans, we should be fizzing that there are such high quality options in the stable.
Here's what the Blackcaps batsmen have been doing in the Plunket Shield...
Tom Latham
4inns, 208 runs @ 52avg/59.25sr, 2 x 50.
Tom Blundell
7inns, 162 runs @ 23.14avg/58.90sr, 1 x 100
Ross Taylor
5inns, 125 runs @ 25avg/80.64sr.
Henry Nicholls
1inns, 87 runs @ 87avg/60.41sr, 1 x 50.
BJ Watling
6inns, 202 runs @ 40.40avg/43.53sr, 2 x 50.
Will Young
5inns, 199 runs @ 66.3avg/62.97sr, 1 x 100.
Colin de Grandhomme
3inns, 106 runs @ 35.33avg/98.14sr, 1 x 50.
That's pretty damn solid apart from Taylor who apart from de Grandhomme's whack whack strike-rate, has the highest strike-rate of the 32 batsmen with 100+ runs. Taylor hasn't scored many runs in the Plunket Shield, but with a strike-rate that high, one may view Taylor as having a bit of Plunket Shield fun. Latham, Nicholls and Blundell have all done their Test preparation stuff and come into Test cricket with their cobwebs shaken out.
Watling has been low key decent in his Test preparation and that feels notable considering that Watling scored 42 runs in 4inns @ 10.50avg to start 2020 after that beastly innings vs England in Tauranga. Watling has played 11 years of Test cricket and averaged 35+ in seven of those years and there's a dose of alignment in Watling finishing last summer with two half-centuries in the final Plunket Shield game in March, then scoring two half-centuries in the last round of the first stanza leading into Blackcaps cricket.
We may be approaching the final years of Watling's career if we are counting years. If we're dealing in runs, Watling has buckets of run-scoring equity as we enter the summer and regardless of what wicket-keeper/batsmen are hunting a Blackcaps Test spot, Watling's still the gate-keeper.
Here's what the bowlers have been up to...
Tim Southee
82ov, 14w @ 16.85avg/2.87rpo.
Kyle Jamieson
86.5o, 20w @ 10.85avg/2.49rpo.
Neil Wagner
37ov, 7w @ 21.85avg/4.13rpo.
In all the whirlwind of Jamieson hype, Tim Southee has been quietly effective and he finished the first stanza ranked 6th in Plunket Shield bowlers. Wagner played one game less than Southee, so he's further down the rankings and that's sweet as both Southee and Wagner are ticking over with overs bowled, as well as snaring their share of wickets.
Between 2014-2017, Wagner averaged mid-20s in Test cricket before a sporadic three year window that we're currently in. 2018 saw Wagner averaged 39.28, then 2019 Wagner had his best calendar year of Test cricket with 43 wickets @ 17.81avg and starting 2020 with 5w @ 30avg. That's two and a half years in which Wagner has registered his highest annual average since 2012 (his first year), plus his lowest annual average.
I lay that out because right now, Wagner's averaging 30 and a super nerdy thing to keep tabs on his what direction this year's average goes. Not that this is important, I'm merely fascinated to see what Wagner is up to after two years in which he's been his relative worst and borderline legendary. As for Southee, he has 12 years of Test cricket with 2018 and 2020 being the only years in which Southee has averaged less than 20.
That's not to suggest that Southee has sucked for 10 years as he's been heavily relied upon in Test cricket and all formats, plus he's averaging mid-20s in most years. What this does suggest is that Southee may be in his prime years as a seamer and for Southee, Boult and Wagner, they all do their best work under the captaincy of Williamson...
Daniel Vettori as captain
Tim Southee: 42.54avg.
Brendan McCullum as captain
Tim Southee: 30.23avg.
Trent Boult: 31.30avg.
Neil Wagner: 29.15avg.
Ross Taylor as captain
Tim Southee: 26.30avg.
Trent Boult: 44.42avg.
Neil Wagner: 27.12avg.
Kane Williamson as captain
Tim Southee: 24.61avg.
Trent Boult: 22.81avg.
Neil Wagner: 26.21avg.
Tom Latham as captain
Trent Boult: 34.33avg.
When those yarns about Williamson and coach Gary Stead beefing or any issues around Williamson's captaincy pop up, these numbers make the case for Williamson in rather emphatic fashion. Part of this is also due to seam bowlers sussing out their craft as they gain experience as most of Williamson's captaincy has been in the last few years, which leaves me pondering if this seam attack can hit a nek level as they are trending in that direction. Same goes for the batsmen and while all antics outside Test cricket are kinda messy, there is a decent chance that the Test team only gets better in Aotearoa this summer.
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Peace and love.