Jah Bless The Caribbean: Kiwis In The 2020 CPL
T20 tournaments around the world tend not to offer much funk for yours truly, other than laying down some context for Blackcaps T20I matters. The Caribbean Premier League is sparking up again though, set to get underway in mid August and the crew of kiwi cricketers involved is rather intriguing as we ponder how the T20 international landscape could look ahead of a T20 World Cup - whenever that is.
Ross Taylor is set to line up for Guyana Amazon Warriors and while some may not view matua Ross as one of, if not the most interesting kiwi cricketer in the T20 format, his work in the middle-order for the Blackcaps over the past few years has been nothing but bonkers. Of course, Taylor's whole career hit a nek level after that infamous eye surgery and the fact that Taylor looks the best he's ever looked with that GM willow across all formats is rather mind-boggling.
Having played T20I cricket for 15 years, Taylor has averaged 40+ in two of those years and one is way back in 2012, the other is 2020. There are all sorts of twists and turns in such a long career and when pondering Taylor's batsmanship, some may reckon that a young Taylor may be better suited to T20 cricket. That's the whole point here as Taylor's experience and all-round batsmanship has resulted in him being a steady presence regardless of the situation when he comes to the crease for Aotearoa.
Taylor's first five years of T20I cricket saw him average between 12.50 - 25.37.
Taylor's last five years of T20I cricket have him averaging between 20 - 41.50.
That average of 20 came in 2017 when Taylor played just one game, so if that's taken out of the mix then Taylor has been averaging between 27.60 - 41.50.
Throughout his career, Taylor has a T20I average of 26.51 and that flips into an average of 31.57 since the start of 2019. Interestingly, Taylor hasn't played Indian Premier League T20 cricket since 2014 and that may simply be due to personal choice because as I laid out above; Taylor's a lovely T20I batsman.
Taylor's work in the CPL will be a mandatory follow given that he appears to be the most experienced batsman in the Guyana squad, so there could be a need for Taylor to play a similar role for Guyana as he does for Aotearoa. This will then set the scene for the home summer and I expect this whole process to result in a double, or tripling down of Taylor being a low key T20I monster.
Colin Munro and Ish Sodhi will also be in action, after both had strong T20I performances last summer. While Taylor grabbed that 41.50avg in the series vs India and Kane Williamson scooted along at 53.33avg, to finish 3rd and 4th in run respectively, Munro led all Blackcaps run-scorers in the T20I series vs India and finished 2nd in total runs with an average of 35.60.
Same for Sodhi, who finished 3rd in wickets for that series and was tied with Hamish Bennett as the leading Blackcaps with 6 wickets each. Sodhi took his 6w @ 24.33avg while Bennett averaged 30.16 and thus, Sodhi was the only kiwi bowler to take 2+ wickets and average below 30 in that series.
Performing well against India was crucial for Munro and Sodhi because their work in 2019 took a dip; Munro averaged 22.41 and that's his lowest annual averaged since 2015, while Sodhi averaged 35+ in 2018 and 2019. Both bounced back nicely to start 2020 and despite the shit-storm that 2020 has become, both can now slide into the CPL to continue to push their case for consistently holding down Blackcaps T20I spots.
Sodhi will play for St Kitts & Nevis Patriots and Munro is locked in for Trinbago Knight Riders, the latter also picking up Tim Seifert. Seifert is a more recent addition to the Blackcaps T20I mix and is another joker who had a great series vs India, finishing 6th in total runs with an average of 47 as Seifert joined Munro, Taylor and Williamson in hitting two 50+ scores.
Northern Districts Knights weren't so good in last summer's Super Smash, although Seifert still scored plenty of runs as he also finished 6th in Super Smash runs with an average of 40.37. This is Seifert's first T20 tournament abroad and as he has recently cracked steady game time with the Blackcaps T20I team, the CPL offers Seifert an opportunity to flex even further and a strong tournament in the Caribbean will set up Seifert beautifully for the summer.
Seifert has kinda taken the place of Glenn Phillips in the Blackcaps T20I team as Phillips hasn't played a T20I for Aotearoa since late in 2018, while Seifert made his first appearance in early 2018. That's actually worked out well as Phillips has been able to settle into a groove outside of what he's most known for and the stars aligned for Phillips to score a half-century on Test debut - via a First Class average of 39.62.
What many folk may have missed with Phillips is how good he has been in the CPL for the past two years for Jamaica Tallawahs where he’ll play again; Phillips averaged 37.25 in the 2018 tournament and 37.40 in the 2019 tournament. Phillips finished 2nd in runs in 2018, a spot behind Munro and he then backed that up with finishing 4th last year, although that didn't lead to anything notable in the Super Smash last summer other than a century; one 50+ score in 9inns.
Phillips did join Devon Conway as the only batsmen to score a century in the Super Smash last summer, so that's cool. Now Phillips is essentially a CPL veteran and unlike the other four kiwis involved, Phillips is trying to get into the Blackcaps T20I team which starts in the Caribbean with perhaps his third dominant season in a row.
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Peace and love.