Blackcaps vs Bangladesh: Abundance Mindset
Welcome back ODI cricket! Having made a hard and fast visit into the minds of kiwi cricket fans with three ODIs against Bangladesh, ODI cricket drifts back into the abyss. Three games, three wins and standard Blackcaps bullying in Aotearoa. Bangladesh managed to take just 13 of a possible 30 wickets, while also putting up two scores below 160 and hopefully everything's a wee bit more competitive in the T20I series.
Whether it's the fact that these blokes are pretty good in home conditions, or the weird ODI schedule that the Blackcaps are working with; slicing insights aren't easy to throw up from this series. One of the more funkier insights is the same yarn served in a different way as the last two full ODI series played by Aotearoa reflect the whirlwind nature of recent Blackcaps antics.
Hamish Bennett and Tim Southee were the leading Blackcaps wicket-takers in the ODI series vs India early last year - neither played a game vs Bangladesh. Colin de Grandhomme took a few wickets and smacked 64 runs @ 168.42sr in that Indian series and he's been swiped aside as Aotearoa's favourite mellow kiwi-African. Tom Blundell played two ODIs vs India, Mark Chapman even wiggled his way into a game and those Chapman appearances now feel consistently sporadic.
There is a whirlwind vibe with so many players in and out of squads, however it is a beautiful whirlwind that is awfully strange for kiwi cricket fans. Aotearoa cricket has never really experienced such Blackcaps depth and as fans, we come from a time when the Blackcaps had a couple really good players supported by various hole-pluggers. Any player who did something good in domestic cricket had to be in the Blackcaps, because *insert journeyman here* wasn't quite kicking it at the international level.
I reckon this shapes how many folks view and discuss Devon Conway.
Pure talent has been rare on the kiwi cricket production line and combined with various mediocre versions of the Blackcaps, such talent has been viewed through a scarcity lens; 'with no faith in where the next good Blackcap is coming from, this talent needs to be in the team right now or else we'll suck'.
The Blackcaps have transitioned into a different space where the team wins games and has a fabulous top-tier group. This is a team that has supreme confidence in their culture, their leadership and how they go about their business. There is no desperation - talent and winning vibes are in abundance.
The Summer of Devon Conway
Plunket Shield: 456 runs @ 50.66avg/47.50sr, 1 x 100, 2 x 50.
Super Smash: 455 runs @ 65avg/135.82sr, 5 x 50.
T20I: 366 runs @ 52.28avg/145.23sr, 3 x 50.
ODI: 225 runs @ 75avg/88.23sr, 1 x 100, 1 x 50.
Devon Conway is fantastic.
The Blackcaps have also cracked two World Cup finals and the World Test Championship final, without Conway. The Blackcaps are also pretty good and as strange as this is to comprehend with the Blackcaps; the Blackcaps are all good with or without Conway. Part of this stems from a consistent Blackcaps narrative as many of these kiwi cricketers have not played one, let alone five games overseas ... let alone scoring runs/taking wickets overseas.
Meanwhile, the Blackcaps have players in their winning team who are world-class because of what they have done overseas. Conway will play many games for Aotearoa, I suspect Daryl Mitchell will also contribute across all three formats and we as fans don't need to be frantic about this. Relax in the joys of kiwi cricket, knowing that these dudes and a bloke like Lockie Ferguson is in the pocket.
Keep an open mind as to how Conway will get further game time. The Ross Taylor form issue is brewing and it's an easy option to take, I'd also throw up the Test opening gig as a possible entry point for Conway depending on how Tom Blundell performs and Conway can genuinely bat anywhere in the line up in any format.
Take Blundell as an example here. Blundell has played 10 Tests, two in Australia and eight in Aotearoa. Hence, I don't really have any assessment on Blundell as a Test opener because he's kinda doing what Jeet Raval did to start his Test career. Raval's first 18 Tests featured two outside Aotearoa (UAE) and Raval looked alright, then came his next six Tests with two in Australia, two in Aotearoa and two in Sri Lanka; Raval's no longer the Test opener.
Keep in mind that four Blackcaps bowlers accounted for 22 of the 26 wickets taken; Jimmy Neesham took 7w, Matt Henry took 6w, Trent Boult had 5w and Mitchell Santner snared 4w. Neesham was the only bowler who conceded more than 4rpo, pointing to a bowling unit that was as dominant as the batting group. That smells like the perfect storm for ODI debutants to score runs.
If the Blackcaps didn't have good players with overseas experience and they were losing games, then we slide back into that old Blackcaps mindset of 'get Conway in everything, asap'. Conway loves the vibe, he knows the situation and this isn't a salary cap sport where Conway is being hunted by rival clubs because he's not playing. As it stands, Conway has emphatically leap-frogged Will Young and Mark Chapman, with Glenn Phillips and Tom Blundell in his sights across the formats.
The funkiest Conway idea to ponder is...
T20I Record
Devon Conway: 11 games, 366 runs @ 52.28avg/145.23sr.
Kyle Jamieson: 8 games, 4w @ 70.25avg/9.80rpo.
One bloke has a massive IPL contract, the other doesn't.
2020/21 Big Bash League
Colin Munro: 16 games, 443 runs @ 31.64avg/128.03, 4 x 50.
Adam Milne: 12 games, 5w @ 66.60avg/7.57rpo.
One bloke is back in the T20I mix, the other isn't.
Just some interesting kiwi cricket situations.
The T20I series starts tomorrow and the squad consists mainly of players who are outside the top-tier. We have already seen the Blackcaps roll through the Bangladesh ODI team and a second-tier T20I team could go either way in terms of rolling Bangladesh again, or battling against a Bangladesh T20I team who must be fizzing to win games. This will be the last chance to see the Blackcaps play this summer, before the overseas adventures begin.
Peace and love.