On the 28th day of August, 28-year-old Devon Conway will be 29-years-old and he'll be eligible to represent Aotearoa on a cricket field. There are about 28 reasons why Conway should be considered for selection asap and through our glorious domestic cricket coverage, Conway has been a steady presence via run-scoring domination. There have been so many runs across the three formats that Conway should be considered the best non-Blackcaps batsman in Aotearoa and one could make a case that he's better than some of the lads in the various Blackcaps teams.

When feeling through the Conway situation, having moved to Aotearoa after jacking up plenty of runs in South Africa to link up with Wellington Firebirds, nuance is the key. There is a certain level of simplicity that sits on the surface level as the stats tell the story of a tornado that has blown through the cricket landscape of Aotearoa. Conway's career numbers are excellent, his season by season breakdowns are lovely and no other kiwi lad has done the multi-format thing quite like Conway.

The stats are compelling and tell us that Conway should be in the Blackcaps when normal service resumes. This plays into a slight narrative of Conway being a Blackcaps saviour, a prodigy who fell on to the lap of Aotearoa and while Conway is worthy of such firm opinions, the nuance sits in what an intriguing little situation this builds to.

First and foremost, Conway doesn't believe he is some sort of saviour or prodigy and all the information I have gathered about Conway suggests he's a mellow, beautiful bloke. On top of that, Conway is one of those professional athletes who is all about their work and when you're in love with the work more than you love the outcome, good things come. From an outside perspective, Conway has gone about his business and obviously wants to reach the top, with this eligibility date merely a checkpoint on his journey.

In the media around this news, Conway himself laid out that there is nothing automatic about his entry into whatever Blackcaps squads. While Conway's talent is worthy and his antics have put us in this position feeling a fizz of excitement that Conway could represent Aotearoa, don't assume that all of this is automatic. Having done a three-thingy thing about the Blackcaps summer of transition and transformation, I'm intrigued as to how Conway fits into the Blackcaps frame.

Had Conway been a spinner for example, the swift departures of Todd Astle, Mitchell Santner and Will Somerville could have been beneficial for Conway. Conway is a batsman though and there is a funny little situation where Conway's run-scoring has been superior to that of Tom Blundell since Conway's arrival in Wellington. Conway has been a wicket-keeper at various stages of his career, but Blundell's the Firebirds numero tahi wicket-keeper and this season the Firebirds leaned on Lachie Johns as their specialist wicket-keeper in Blundell's absence.

I see two openings in the Blackcaps Test team and the battle between Conway and Blundell is an example of how weird things are. Conway is the best batsman in Aotearoa's domestic circuit, making him Wellington's best batsman although it is Wellington's wicket-keeper/batsman who is the Blackcaps Test opener. Blundell's done fairly well in that role also, setting himself as BJ Watling's back up/successor and a Test opener at the same time.

This doesn't mean I view Conway as a Test opener, I'm merely rolling through the options. Conway operated at #3 this season for Wellington and that or #4 feels like his best spot, which is where two of Aotearoa's greatest ever reside. In the Test bubble, this could depend on the work of Henry Nicholls and/or BJ Watling, neither of whom finished the summer in good form; Nicholls hasn't scored 50+ in 12inns and Watling didn't pass 50 in the 8inns after dominating England.

Those are the two lads to watch in the Test team, however the next little issue is the Blackcaps vibe. Under the leadership of Kane Williamson, I definitely do not believe that there will be any rush to kick Nicholls or Watling out. Everything that we know and love about the Blackcaps stems from the culture within that team and the festering bacteria (culture) is all about team-first, waiting for the opportunity and sticking with those who are struggling. Especially trusted troopers such as Nicholls and Watling.

Let's not forget Will Young, the Central Districts Stags batsman who was on the brink of a Blackcaps Test debut until the days in which I learned the most about love and forgiveness arrived in Christchurch. Young was right there, sniffing the fresh black cap aromas and then he went missing for almost a year via injury. Here is what Young did upon his return to cricket in 2020, in order...

Ford Trophy: 62.

Tour games vs India A: 54, 26, 2.

Plunket Shield: 68, 17*, 1, 22, 10, 133*.

That's a decent return to cricket, good enough to keep Young in the frame and it's fairly interesting that Young's career First-Class average of 42.36 isn't too far behind Conway's 47avg. We also have Daryl Mitchell and Glenn Phillips who made their Test debuts this summer and hit half-centuries on debut.

After integrating different bits and pieces throughout this summer, the Blackcaps Test team finished the summer in a settled position. Players fell out of the mixer and new lads did well when given their opportunities, all of which makes this complex for any immediate Test action for Conway. Even the ODI team has limited space for opportunities, considering that Nicholls' Test slump has had no impact on his ODI work and Nicholls has three 50+ scores in his last 6inns.

Martin Guptill, Williamson, Ross Taylor and Tom Latham are locked in. Anything further down the batting line up gets into all-rounder territory and it becomes less about pure run-scoring and more about what skills you offer the team. Conway isn't alone in this as there is a growing list of batsman who are making waves and all of these lads are trying to break into a batting group that is doing pretty well.

That leaves the T20I team and considering Conway's T20 antics in South Africa and Aotearoa, the weird ol' T20 world is asleep. Conway's T20 average of 39.66 (with a slick strike-rate of 124.84) is good enough to put him 11th on the highest averages ... in the world ... ever. Only three players ranked higher than Conway are currently active with Virat Kohli and KL Rahul both on the list, while Auckland's Rob O'Donnell is 2nd behind Chirs Harris (!!).

Holy guacamole that was a crazy sentence to write.

So should O'Donnell be front and centre of the illustrious T20 franchise meat-market? Maybe, working against O'Donnell is that he has only played Super Smash and Super Smash cricket doesn't rank very highly talent-wise compared to other T20 leagues. Conway has at least done this in South Africa and Aotearoa, which at the very least makes Conway a T20I asset for Aotearoa's Blackcaps.

Conway's eligibility date is conveniently just before the T20 World Cup and that seems the likeliest opening for Conway to crack the Blackcaps. I'm definitely not going to assume that such events are going to be played out in our current climate, offering further funk to this whole situation. Let's not get ahead of ourselves though as Colin Munro, Taylor and Williamson were ranked 2nd, 3rd and 4th in for runs in the T20I series vs India and Tim Seifert finished 6th (all with healthy stats).

Munro did what he needed to do in that series, as did Seifert to cling on to their T20I spots in the top-five or so. Guptill was also service-able, but again we need to go back to the Blackcaps vibe where a player needs to be out of form to get cut; Williamson isn't going to kick blokes out just because Conway's around.

A date has been set and that offers clarity to all. I'd suggest that this will play out slowly and the status-quo will continue, allowing different aspects of Blackcaps and domestic cricket to settle over the next summer. That idea exists in the same realm as Conway being a secret weapon for the T20I World Cup, however even then a bold decision to drop someone who isn't typically 'out of form' will need to be made. All of this exists also exists in the same realm as such cricket not being played for a while yet and as such, none of this Blackcaps x Conway stuff is as simple as it seems.

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Peace and love 27.