Aotearoa vs Pakistan: Ross Taylor Rested
The Aotearoa Blackcaps take on Pakistan in the second of three T20I series in Aotearoa this summer and while the net being cast far and wide is all good under the umbrella of preparing for two T20 World Cups; holy guacamole things are a bit strange. Across the T20I series vs West Indies and the squad named to face Pakistan, 21 different players have been included and both squads have featured players popping up for a game here, game there as they are graced with various windows to kick back.
Ross Taylor didn't quite get that luxury and according to the NZC press release for the naming of the squad to play Pakistan, Taylor was apparently the only player to be 'dropped'. Not quite at the peak of his powers across Test and T20I cricket to start this summer, there is little statistical evidence to suggest that Taylor is a mandatory selection and praise Jah, Allah and Buddha that Taylor doesn't have the stats to command selection. That would make it too easy to highlight the shenanigans here and instead, there are some larger ideas at work.
First, we need to slide back to 2017 when Taylor was cut from the Blackcaps T20I team and the reasoning in no way aligned with other selection moves or even the idea of giving one of Aotearoa's greatest cricketers a slice of respect. When Taylor was cut from the Blackcaps T20I team back in 2017, he casually went into that summer's Super Smash and cracked 162 runs in two games @ 178.02sr.
This time around, 'the blazing bats of Glenn Phillips and Devon Conway' were mentioned in the first paragraph. The next two paragraphs zoned in on Kane Williamson, Trent Boult, Tim Southee, Kyle Jamieson and Daryl Mitchell only being selected for the second and third games, under the premise that they play Test cricket and need some level of rest. Third paragraph and Lockie Ferguson's out injured, fourth paragraph and Hamish Bennett's out injured, fifth paragraph and Jacob Duffy gets a promotion and so on until you scroll a bit further down the page to find that Taylor has been 'left out'.
Even Mitchell Santner was mentioned as 'taking his first break since leaving for the Caribbean Premier League back in August". That's the same CPL where Taylor played, prior to Taylor then playing Plunket Shield, T20I and Test cricket while Santner has played two Indian Premier League games and three T20I games since the CPL. If Santner deserves a rest, bloody oath Rossco does.
Taylor's absence was delivered as an after-thought, then all the cricketing headlines led with Taylor being dropped before quickly moving on to sexier kiwi cricketing matters. Again, this isn't about whether Taylor deserves selection or not, this is about the decision-makers opting to exclude Taylor while his peers are listed as being injured or getting a well deserved rest. All that was required, was to say that Taylor doesn't need to buzz about this series as it is tightly packed between Test series and obviously Taylor deserves a wee kick back period.
Quick note for all those frothing over what happened in the T20I series vs West Indies: since the start of 2018 the Windies have played 12 T20I series and won two of them, one of which was a series vs ICC World 11 with the likes of Chris Gayle, Andre Russell etc playing for Windies. Otherwise, the Windies played Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Bangladesh, England, India, Afghanistan, India, Ireland, Sri Lnka and now Aotearoa.
One win vs the ICC World 11 with all their big donnies playing, one win last year in Sri Lanka. In that period, Windies lost to Afghanistan and drew with Ireland. So, let's chill on celebrating Blackcaps performances too much from one series against a team that simply isn't that good.
The angle of Taylor being dropped, while his Test comrades enjoy a rest period and injuries are mentioned for players below Taylor on the pecking order is strange enough. Upon the backdrop of the T20I squad named, things get a wee bit more loco considering the net has been cast wide enough to include Todd Astle.
Right when Astle was a sniff of enjoying a window of possible steady Test cricket selection, he retired from red-ball cricket. Since then, strictly in white-ball cricket Astle has put up 1w @ 48avg/6pro in last summer's Super Smash, 10w @ 38.40avg/5.12rpo in last summer's Ford Trophy and 4w @ 51.50avg/6.95 in the current Ford Trophy. Apparently that's how you demand Blackcaps selection.
As niggly as that is, we are here to suss out the best possible T20I group for two World Cups and that's why it's alright that Scott Kuggeleijn's 41.75avg/9.06rpo T20I record is being carried through regular selection.
The wide net means the fact that Martin Guptill hasn't passed 40 in 16 T20I innings since the start of 2019, is acceptable.
The wide net means we're rolling with Mitchell Santner's 56avg/8.40rpo/40sr vs India earlier this year and 38avg/12.66ro/18sr vs Windies, as if this hasn't happened.
The wide net, is all good with the understanding that this is the sorting period. Plus, the list of players who are on the T20I outer is a pretty impressive group; Taylor, Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls, Matt Henry, Colin Munro, Tom Blundell. Colin de Grandhomme's absent as well.
Why not cast the net wider? Rachin Ravindra's made the most of his Aotearoa 'A' fixtures and I'm not taking the current crop of 'A' fixtures against touring West Indies and Pakistan teams who have had to endure various 2020 protocols, let alone battle through kiwi conditions which are as foreign as they get for those teams, too seriously.
That is to say that this Ravindra note isn't based on his 'A' work as he is clearly a young prospect emerging through the NZC pipeline and there's a hefty case for his inclusion if we're dealing with 21 different players being chucked into the T20I mixer. Ravindra wasn't dominant in the Super Smash last summer, although he did crack 186 runs @ 20.66avg/144.18sr and only five of the 23 batsmen with more runs than Ravindra had a higher strike-rate.
Ravindra's strike-rates progress nicely through the different formats with 53.65sr in First-Class cricket, 92.66sr in List-A cricket and 138.12sr in T20 cricket. Ravindra's best bowling format is T20 where he averages 29.23/7.91rpo and Ravindra's T20 record of 17.45avg/138.12sr (bat) and 29.23avg/7.91rpo (ball) compares pretty nicely to Astle's 14.60avg/105.41 (bat) and 27.84avg/7.08rpo (ball).
Ravindra has played 14 T20 games, with 6 sixes and a bowling strike-rate of 22.1.
Astle has played 61 T20 games, with 4 sixes and a bowling strike-rate of 23.5.
Whether you love Ravindra or Astle, the wide net being cast for T20I selection in this window of experimentation didn't quite go as far as snaring Ravindra. That wide net definitely won't reach those pigeon-holed as 'Test players' who warrant as much an opportunity of T20I action in this current mode of operations as Astle, Kuggeleijn, Chapman, Duffy and anyone else who hasn't stacked up big T20I numbers.
21 different players have been selected for T20I cricket in the past month or so. That tells us fans what's happening as the Blackcaps are quite clearly exploring their various options and fans can enjoy that transparency. On the back of the Windies series and leading into a monster series vs Australia, vs Pakistan it is all about finding who is worthy of being a top-15 Blackcaps T20I player.
I believe Ross Taylor is a top-15 Blackcaps T20I player and regardless of his stats, I just watched a Test series in which most on-field decisions went through Taylor and that’s been par for the Blackcaps course in the last five years. I've watched Taylor salvage T20I innings for Aotearoa as only a batsman as experienced and versatile as Taylor could, let alone enjoying the Ross Taylor since he burst on to the scene way back when.
That's not overly important though. With regards to Taylor specifically, this is a legend of Aotearoa cricket who has rather consistently been treated like a regular cricketing pleb. Did the All Blacks ever fluff around with Kieran Reid - dragging him through captaincy dramas or instead of rolling out the same rest yarn that everyone else enjoyed, is the only bloke dropped?
Through their press release, NZC made it known that Taylor was dropped and that every other player had some reason for missing this T20I series other than being dropped. That was carried around the world, headlines read 'Taylor dropped' and those same stories stuck to the script of other players having various reasons for their absence/rotation. Tick this up as another case of kaumatua Rossco, one of Aotearoa's best cricketers to ever exist being niggled for no reason.
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