A Quick Geeze At How The Blackcaps’ World T20 Cycle’s Been Going
There’s a T20 World Cup coming up. Not sure when exactly since it’s becoming increasingly likely that the tournament in Australia in October will be postponed – with the IPL keen to take that spot on the ICC schedule instead because for one thing it’s much easier to host a domestic competition than an international one and then also, you know, because the BCCI usually tend to get their way with these things. Apparently the BCCI make more than half a billion dollars from the IPL compared to just $80m in their annual ICC payout.
There are complications with many other member nations, New Zealand included, rather desperate to get that ICC tournament money from the World T20... although if delaying it means fans are able to attend then that makes patience into a lucrative option even for the cash-strapped member nations not named England, India, or Australia. Also complicating things is that the Champions Trophy has been scrapped with a second World T20 scheduled to take place in 2021 instead (in India) which could mean they conveniently merge those into one tournament or they could have multiple World T20s in 2021 or who bloody knows what’ll happen, to be honest.
This also comes at a curious time for the Blackcaps as a T20 team. Two upcoming World T20s with all the focus that requires and yet while they performed beautifully in the other two formats against India... they were swept in the T20 stuff across five matches (albeit with a couple super overs in there). Their best batsman in this format since the last World Cup, Colin Munro, just lost his Blackcaps centralised contract (for whatever that’s worth) and there’s a fella called Devon Conway knocking down the door to get in. Generally T20 has been the format where the Blackcaps have looked to ease the up and comers into international cricket but at the moment there’s a focus on winning because of the tournament prep... well, up until we stopped knowing what the deal would be with those tournaments but so it goes. There’s also often a confusion between the formats in how the Blackcaps are covered, Colin Munro’s poor form in ODIs clouding what he’s achieved in T20s for example, and those two factors have made for an odd ironing out period in trying to work out what an eleven would look like in a World T20 knockout match.
Four years ago, India hosted the previous World T20. New Zealand played the hosts in their first game, putting up 126/7 from their twenty overs after winning the toss and choosing to bat. Corey Anderson topped it with 34 runs (at a strike-rate of 80). Not the sexiest total but then Mitchell Santner had arguably his finest moment in a Blackcaps jersey as he took 4/11 in helping bowl India out for 79. Ish Sodhi also took 3/18 and Nathan McCullum 2/15. A wondrous day for the spinners. That was followed up with an 8 run win over Australia. Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson, Grant Elliott, and Colin Munro all got starts as the ‘Caps scored 142/8 batting first and then Mitch McClenaghan led the way with 3/17 in restricting the Aussies. Comfortable-ish wins over Pakistan and Bangladesh then launched the Blackcaps into the knockouts with a perfect record of four wins from four... but England chased down our 153/8 with 17 balls and seven wickets remaining. The West Indies were the eventual champs, Carlos Braithwaite demolishing Ben Stokes with a bunch of sixes at the end there, huge drama.
The eleven in that semi-final: Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson, Colin Munro, Corey Anderson, Ross Taylor, Luke Ronchi, Grant Elliott, Mitchell Santner, Mitch McClenaghan, Ish Sodhi, Adam Milne.
Safe to say that plenty has changed since then. Half that team is off the grid now. And the process of working through the cycle between World T20s hasn’t been the smoothest – the Blackcaps have a losing record over that time, 15 wins from 38 T20s. That’s with 19 defeats, plus three ties which were all super over defeats, and a no-result. It’s a better record than defending champs West Indies have over these last four years (16 wins, 28 losses) but kinda rank compared to teams like India, Pakistan and, to a slightly lesser degree, Australia, who are miles ahead of the competition. Whether that means a damn when the actual World T20 comes around is another question... but four years in between World T20s and there is supposed to be two in the space of twelve months. Might just check in on who’s been doing the business in that format since the last tournament then, aye?
38 games in between World T20s and Colin Munro has played 37 of them. Ish Sodhi has played 35, Mitch Santner has played 34, Tim Southee has played 33, and Colin de Grandhomme has played 32. That already gives you a pretty decent indication of what the top team looks like, those fellas are the regulars. Kane Williamson, Martin Guptill, and Ross Taylor step into the conversation as well having had a few rests in the T20s over recent years. 38 games and 34 players in total... which doesn’t even include Devon Conway or Kyle Jamieson who are both now contracted and surely in the mix (as well as any other bolters). Twenty of those 34 players have played less than ten times in the last four years, eleven of them fewer than five games. Here are the top run scorers in that time...
Four fellas up the top there all surely gonna be batting in the top 5-6 in a must-win T20, probably the strength of the team in fact (as long as the openers are on form). Kane Williamson had a terrible 2018 in T20s, at one stage being dismissed in the single figures on six of seven occasions in a row... but he’s currently on a run of nine consecutive double figure scores including six scores of 20+ and three of 50+. The strike-rate is mostly excellent too which negates the one criticism you could have of Kane in this form. Williamson opened at the 2016 tournament but his best stuff since has come at first drop. Similarly Ross Taylor has settled in beautifully to a closer’s role in the middle order and likewise got starts in all five matches against India including two fifties. Before then he hadn’t passed 50 in a T20 international since 2014 (but with five scores in the 40s to be fair, three of them not outs). The two best batsmen in the team seem to have found their T20-specific roles after some confusing times, sweet as.
Colin Munro’s 1224 runs since the last World T20 is absolutely elite. The only four players in the world with more are Rohit Sharma (1481 runs/34.44 ave/151.12 sr), Babar Azam (1471/50.72/128.13), KL Rahul (1461/45.65/146.10), and Paul Stirling (1373/45.65/146.21)... and Stirlo did most of that against associate nations. Munro has a better strike-rate than any of them and his average is better than Sharma’s in ten fewer innings. However most of that damage was done at the start of the cycle and it was only against India most recently that he regathered any of his old form and he did so at a strike-rate rather un-Munro-esque...
2017 Colin Munro – 8 INNS | 39.57 AVE | 163.90 SR
2018 Colin Munro – 12 INNS | 45.45 AVE | 178.57 SR
2019 Colin Munro – 12 INNS | 22.41 AVE | 154.59 SR
2020 Colin Munro – 5 INNS | 35.60 AVE | 130.88 SR
And concerningly Martin Guptill’s in a similar boat, a brilliant 2017 (41.00 ave/146.95 sr) but in his 13 games since he’s averaging in the low 20s. One inconsistent dude at the top and you’ve got the luxury of being able to let them play their way out of it. Two openers who you don’t know what to expect from them and that’s more troubling... although both these two have the literal runs on the board to have earned that trust. And anyway it’s that other spot in the top five which is the biggest concern. Colin de Grandhomme has been holding it down lately as a specific batsman. He’s only bowled in three of his last 13 matches so you can’t call him an all-rounder in T20s. He’s also scored 21 runs in his last five innings total. This after a great run of three fifties and two more 30+ scores in eight innings before that... which in turn came after a run of just one score above ten in 13 innings. Bloody hell. But if he’s playing as a specific batsman then he has to be judged as one too and this is vulnerable form.
Who else has scored runs? Tim Seifert has a couple good scores to his name and seems to be the preferred gloveman these days. Tom Bruce, Glenn Phillips, and Daryl Mitchell all had 10+ innings and didn’t do enough to hold it down. Jimmy Neesham has only played five matches in these four years. Henry Nicholls only four. Tom Latham just one. Unlike with the ODI and Test teams, it seems like it’d be rather easy to fit Devon Conway in there if they really wanted to. Besides that though the batting lineup feels pretty stable. The bowling stuff on the other hand...
Not only are Santner and Sodhi both atop these figures but their respective matches played tells the tale that they’re doing it as a duo too. No need to pick, they’re both first choice. Beyond them there’s the superstar duo of Trent Boult and Tim Southee, with Southee only missing a handful of games while Boult has played less than half of them. Specifically Trenty’s played 16/38 of those matches (with only five wins in those 16 games)... and that begs the question whether the Blackcaps are willing to hurt the feelings of some of the senior dudes in order to pick the eleven that’s most effective for the format. Boult is responsible for New Zealand’s only 4+ wicket haul since the last World T20 (4/34 vs India in 2017) but has only played two T20Is in the last two years. And Tim Southee’s 32 wickets in that time are nice but his average of a shade under 30s isn’t awesome. Of all the 24 players worldwide with 30+ wickets in this time he has the worst average and tied worst strike rate.
One fella who there can be no question about is Lockie Ferguson. Still a small sample size but he’s done great so far, 14 wickets from 31 overs is outstanding. And his economy rate as a result is also great. That’s potentially a bowling lineup right there already: Boult, Southee, Ferguson, Santner & Sodhi. Add in a batting all-rounder like a Jimmy Neesham or Daryl Mitchell or Colin de Grandhomme for insurance overs and there you go. That’s assuming that Boult and Southee are the best options in this format. We don’t know what Kyle Jamieson can offer yet. But we have seen several games each from Seth Rance, Scott Kuggeleijn, Ben Wheeler, and Hamish Bennett over the last four years and none of those averages are fantastic while all of those RPOs are awful. If you’re going above nines then you’ve gotta be taking wickets. Only Seth Rance has really hinted at that of that quartet. Blair Tickner’s been even worse with 4 wickets from 18 overs at an average of 44.25 and economy rate of 9.83.
There’s nobody else from the recent past who has featured regularly. Daryl Mitchell has only bowled 9.1 overs in 11 matches (often late on, so he’s got a great strike-rate but poor economy rate). Adam Milne and Doug Bracewell have played a handful of times, hearkening back to the time before the last World T20. Matt Henry and Todd Astle played once each. Anaru Kitchen had three matches. Colin Munro and Kane Williamson have gotten some very spare part-timer overs. Two matches for Ajaz Patel. Jimmy Neesham’s only played sparingly.
This is all only looking at the current World T20 cycle. What they decide to do going forwards and whether the current situation alters any of that is a different story but these numbers do burst a couple bubbles. Colin Munro’s squeakiness is one – he’s been the most common player all cycle and by far the best performing batsman overall. Similarly the spin twins aren’t competing with one another, they’re complementing one another and playing basically every match and taking wickets in the process. This is the kind of uncharacteristic Blackcaps trend that makes you wanna drape a wet flannel on their forehead and check their temperature but while the seamers have been all over the place at T20 level (Fergo aside) it’s the spin twins who have held it down. Santner a little more economical, Sodhi a little more aggressive. It’s a fine combination and with the pressure of T20 run rates they’re able to get it done on all variety of pitches. Munro’s been dropped from the ODI squad now. Santner’s fallen behind Ajaz Patel in the Test ranks. Sodhi seems to be on the fringes of both but with only rare appearances. But those three have been our three most reliable T20 fellas since the last World T20. How about that?
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