Aotearoa vs West Indies: Blackcaps Eve
Blackcaps eve. Emerging from the long night of 2020's soul, Aotearoa's Blackcaps will spark up their summer with T20I fixtures that finally have a heavy dose of context. Of course much of this is about having fun, enjoying high quality cricket and given all that has come to pass in 2020, watching a couple sixes slugged in front of a bunch of frothing kiwis is nothing but fun. Drift off into the Blackcaps mangroves where things get weird and Blackcaps eve also feels like the lull of energy before we embark on a summer of immense funk.
Last summer, was documented here as a summer of transition and transformation. That's because after years of a settled Blackcaps unit playing a couple Tests in Aotearoa, we were delivered doosras that enforced minor tweaks and a push in a slightly fresh direction; Tom Blundell ended the summer as the Blackcaps Test opener and Kyle Jamieson as a cricketing deity (Papatuanuku).
We went on a journey of Test debuts, results across all formats that made a lot of sense and didn't make much sense. Big performers and lads who fell out of the equation. A summer that I reckon served as the bridge between a settled period and the impending shake up, taking us into a year that outside of cricket, has been all about transformation. Wander back to January or February and ponder how 2020 would inject all sorts of shenanigans into your life.
And here we are.
Here we are folks, late in November where Colin de Grandhomme and Ajaz Patel are out injured for Test duties, Devon Conway's almost a certified Blackcap and Mitchell Santner's not only back in the Test frame - he's going to captain the T20I team for a game! Last summer we eased our way through all the twists and tweaks, this summer we start with bits of the Blackcaps group already shaken up and this is merely to suggest that open minds are held with how the Blackcaps teams look.
More to the point: this is a reminder to myself that gone are the days where various performances can fall under the 'Aotearoa's best players were absent so, meh' umbrella. Instead, the vibe feels more like a lot of ruthless animals and not much food going around, a highly competitive setting in which the ideal mindset is a rising tide raising all dinghys.
Last summer, the Blackcaps lost both T20I series starting with a 3-2 series defeat vs England and then a 5-0 sweep vs India featuring numerous super over things. Two series defeats, neither of which was a horrible reflection of Blackcaps T20I cricket other than perhaps a lack of hungus winning instincts. Here are the best Blackcappers from those series...
vs England
Batman ting
Martin Guptill: 3rd in runs (both teams), 153 runs @ 30.60avg/177.90sr.
Bowling ting
Mitchell Santner: 1st in wickets, 11w @ 12.81avg/7.83rpo.
vs India
Batman ting
Colin Munro: 2nd in runs, 178 runs @ 35.60avg/130.88sr.
Bowling ting
Ish Sodhi: 3rd in wickets, 6w @ 24.33avg/7.30rpo.
The major T20I note from last summer was the re-emergence of Munro and Sodhi, both of whom struggled vs India and then got back to their status-quo. Munro averaged 22 vs England across five games and Sodhi averaged 58.66 in five games, which gets even funkier when flipping this around to see that after performing well vs England both Guptill and Santner struggled vs India; Guptill averaged 20 in five games and Santner averaged 56 in five games.
Where's Munro?
Hold up, first duty here is to highlight that Munro is genuinely a top-tier Aotearoa T20I batsman.
Munro is 4th overall in T20I runs for Aotearoa, 3rd of the current players behind Guptill (1st) and Ross Taylor (3rd).
Munro is 4th overall in T20I averages for Aotearoa, 3rd of the current group.
Munro's T20I strike-rate is 4th overall, all time. The only players with higher T20I strike-rates than Munro are Scott Kuggeleijn, Matt Henry and Craig McMillan. That means that Munro's got the highest T20I strike-rate of current Blackcaps T20I batsmen and when packaged with runs and a high average, makes a compelling case of a T20I run guzzler.
Which may be why the Perth Scorchers came knocking and Munro opted to skip Blackcaps T20I games, as well as Super Smash games to take part in the Big Bash League. How that plays out in terms of Munro slotting straight back into the Blackcaps after BBL or being shafted for making the decision that NZC force their players to make between T20I/Super Smash and BBL, will be fascinating.
Devon Conway's got a fantastic T20 record himself and there is every chance that he explodes in this series vs West Indies, making everyone forget about Munro. Maybe the Caribbean Premier League legend Glenn Phillips is the bloke to brush Munro aside? Either way, based strictly on stats and well, years of watching Munro slug boundaries, Munro should be in any Blackcaps T20I squad and it would be kinda loco if he was legit brushed aside.
While we're here, Adam Milne will also play BBL for Sydney Thunder and while Milne doesn't have quite the comprehensive record as Munro, it's well worth a geeze. Milne is 9th overall for Blackcaps T20I wickets, 5th of the current group with the 4th-best T20I bowling average of current players and the 3rd-best economy rate.
Milne has played for Kent in three years of T20 Blast cricket, bowling 98 overs all up with an average of 19.10. That wasn’t the case in Milne’s IPL years, but well worth knowing among all those other nifty Milne T20 numbers.
Milne's injuries and Munro's struggles outside of T20 cricket make it seem like their BBL ventures are two lads on the outer drifting away from Blackcaps and towards T20 missionary status. Not that T20 missionary status is bad and we should open our minds to how Aotearoa's best possible T20I team is built. That's all rather true and also, Milne and Munro have got these BBL opportunities for a reason as their pretty nifty in the T20 format.
As far as the Blackcaps Test funk goes, it's all fairly obvious. Last summer Daryl Mitchell stepped in for de Grandhomme and he does it again this summer, only with a dominant first stanza of Plunket Shield cricket behind him where he took 17w @ 14.23avg/2.33rpo in four games. Santner steps in for Ajaz Patel and after having all sorts of spin options, Aotearoa currently has few spin options depending on whether you're a Plunket Shield lover or a Blackcaps selector.
Based on form, Ish Sodhi the only spinner who has been a factor in Plunket Shield with 10w @ 25.60avg/3.38 and he is the best spinner of the first stanza, ranked 15th. Will Somerville has 4w @ 56.25avg/2.72rpo and other than Santner, those are your options. Slide back to last season and Sodhi averaged 80 in Plunket Shield, Santner averaged 57.42, while Patel was low key solid with 26.07avg and the best spinner was Louis Delport who was only playing because Somerville was out injured; Delport hasn't played this season.
The Blackcaps Test recipe is fairly simple for games in Aotearoa; tight spinner to hold things down *when required* for the seamers. Within that prism, Patel and Santner are the only options right now.
Enjoy the cricket, soak up the Aoteaora vibes. Don't cling to what was with the Blackcaps though as this summer feels like it's going to chuck all sorts of doosras our way.
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Peace and love.