Aotearoa's move to open the batting with Daryl Mitchell at the T20 World Cup was a surprise, although Mitchell's quality shouldn't be a surprise to anyone sipping on a twist of kiwi cricket juice. Mitchell has been building to this moment since cracking 73 on Test debut in 2019, checking off each peg of the ladder with his first ODI innings earlier this year resulting in 100* with a glorious strike-rate of 109. Even twisting Mitchell's mahi down to the last few weeks in United Arab Emirates suggests that Mitchell's merely continuing a nifty career arc.

The first warm up game against Australia saw Mitchell open, then retire not-out with 33 runs @ 150sr on the board. Mitchell only scored 2 runs against England in the next warm up game but that was likely due to Mitchell sliding down the order to give Tim Seifert a crack at opening where he scored 8 runs (100sr). These two serve as an interesting comparison as their respective T20 journeys over the past year are best wrapped up with Seifert unable to take his opportunities opening and battling to find his swashbuckling best down the order, while Mitchell kept on cruising.

In losing to Pakistan, Mitchell's knock of 27 runs @ 135sr was swept under the rug. When packaged alongside Mitchell's other knocks in UAE though, things start to get interesting. Mitchell went up level in the win over India with 49 runs @ 140sr and we now have four Mitchell innings in UAE, three of which had Mitchell scoring over 25 runs with strike-rates of at least 135.

Mitchell averages 31.24 in T20 cricket with 132sr. That's basically what Mitchell has produced in his first major international tournament and while Mitchell's T20I record dips down to 20.36avg/137sr, Mitchell has found a groove in 2021. Mitchell's 4 innings this year have come with 40.33avg/157sr and this is in tune with Mitchell's mahi in Super Smash and England's T20 Blast...

2020 Super Smash: 4th - 10inns, 374 runs @ 37.40avg/135sr.

2021 T20 Blast: 8inns - 209 runs @ 26.12avg/144sr.

Mitchell hit the most sixes for Middlesex in the Blast with 11. While I was highlighting Seifert's strike-rate decline, Mitchell was doing the opposite and this gets weird because the thing that commanded attention about Seifert earlier in his career was his Plunket Shield dominance. That was a key indicator of Seifert's quality, now that vibe runs deeper with Mitchell who produces a solid baseline of runs in every format.

Ponder the surprise of Mitchell opening and how many times you've heard that Mitchell hasn't played this role before. Combine Tests and ODIs to give Mitchell two centuries and a half-century in 7inns, which is captured perfectly by Mitchell averaging 38 in both First-Class and List-A cricket. Kane Williamson averages 31.90 in T20 cricket and Martin Guptill averages 31.83, making Mitchell's 31.24avg look a whole lot better and now we're seeing Mitchell parlay this into T20I cricket.

A different way of slicing this is to suss out what Mitchell did in his first season with Canterbury. As noted above, Mitchell was 4th in Super Smash runs and in Ford Trophy, Mitchell only batted twice to smack 30 runs @ 130sr. Mitchell had 6inns of Plunket Shield and scored 288 runs @ 48avg. All of Mitchell's alignment across formats and growth now evident in international cricket, was bottled up nicely for a dominant Canterbury summer.

Mitchell is the Blackcaps leading run-scorer at this T20 World Cup, he's also the only bloke with a strike-rate over 120 and his 138sr is far beyond the next best. Aotearoa has hit six sixes and Mitchell is responsible for five of them. What intrigues me here is how Mitchell is equipped to work through this tournament given how well-rounded Mitchell is as a batsman. Mitchell isn't a slugger and his craft enables him to score runs in any format, any conditions. Mitchell can definitely bang sixes though and his ability to play straight against the new ball while also more than happy to rock back to play the pull shot could prove to be handy with swing a factor at this tournament.

This may just be a hot start for Mitchell. There is ample evidence to believe that Mitchell can continue to build through this tournament though and this feels more like a case of a quality batsman showcasing his talents, rather than a trendy T20 slugger having his moment.

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Peace and love.