Comparing The Home/Away Splits For This Blackcaps Test Squad
Winning away from home is what defines the great Test teams. The Blackcaps are on an incredible unbeaten streak in home conditions – 17 games and more than four years since they last tasted the bitter tang of defeat in Aotearoa – an achievement which is easy to understate given the relative ease of many of the results. But you only have to look at how competitive Pakistan were against South Africa soon after departing our shores to see that was no team of chumps. Yet the Blackcaps beat them handily (by 101 runs at Mount Maunganui and by an innings and 176 runs in Christchurch).
Doing it in your own conditions is one thing, doing it in foreign conditions is another matter. Taking on batsmen and bowlers in their own territory. Meeting them where they eat and beating them. We’re pretty much all in agreement at this point that we have the finest overall Test squad we’ve ever had, there are really handy international players struggling to get a game. Devon Conway’s probably about to nudge Tom Blundell out as opener when Tom Blundell’s not even been playing badly. You can make a solid statistical case that he’s the best Test opener that Tom Latham has played with (though probably not thanks to Brendon McCullum).
Yet as good as this current Blackcaps team may be... winning away from home is something they remain relatively unfamiliar with. Ahead of the impending series in England (starts on Wednesday night, better stock up on caffeine, energy drink, tea, amphetamines, existential crises, or whatever it is that keeps you up at night), eight of our last 11 Test series have been at home. There are six players in the 20-man touring squad who have never played a Test away from New Zealand – three of them uncapped altogether. Colin de Grandhomme, Henry Nicholls, and Tom Blundell aren’t a part of that six-man troupe but have still each earned more than two-thirds of their Test caps in Aotearoa. A combination of a lack of winter touring and prioritising limited overs tournaments has led to a disparity on the calendar. A global pandemic didn’t help either. Here are the Blackcaps’ last 10 Test series overseas...
2019/20 – Australia | Lost 3-0 (3 Tests)
2019 – Sri Lanka | Drew 1-1 (2 Tests)
2018/19 – Pakistan (in UAE) | Won 2-1 (3 Tests)
2016/17 – India | Lost 3-0 (3 Tests)
2016 – South Africa | Lost 1-0 (2 Tests)
2016 – Zimbabwe | Won 2-0 (2 Tests)
2015/16 – Australia | Lost 2-0 (3 Tests)
2015 – England | Drew 1-1 (2 Tests)
2014/15 – Pakistan (in UAE) | Drew 1-1 (3 Tests)
2014 – West Indies | Won 2-1 (3 Tests)
Not fantastic there... but with so few opportunities to tour it’s hard to be too critical. Winning away from home is the hardest thing in the game. It’s in playing away that a lot of teams are caught up short, a lot of players who’ve been hyped up heavy are exposed as flat-track bullies and the like. Not to be too harsh... but there are a few of these candidates in the English cricketing system at the moment. There might be a few in the Blackcaps system too to be fair, though that lack of away games means it’s hard to slap a label on anyone. But definitely there are candidates.
Important point to note here is that the greatest players of all time are going to have skewed home vs away records because averaging 50+ does not mean you score exactly fifty in every innings. It means you balance out at that point and naturally you’re going to score more runs in more favourable conditions, conditions such as the strength of the opposition, the quality of the deck, playing at home, etc. Having better teammates taking the pressure off doesn’t go astray either – plenty of legends in NZ cricket history would have their numbers boosted by featuring in the current team. So it’s not a case of saying, like, oh Kane Williamson averages way more at home than he does away therefore blah blah blah... nah, he’s supposed to average way more at home. But he also happens to have 11 Test centuries overseas as well so there you go.
With that in mind, here’s how the current Blackcaps squad fares on the batting side…
Yeah so there’s some more empirical evidence of the greatness of Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor, if indeed you needed any more of it. Goddamn, man. Averaging 65 runs per innings in home conditions? Absolutely nuts. And notice that Henry Nicholls joins the two in the 50+ mark at home... albeit with a much lower mark overseas. Six of his seven hundies in Aotearoa (126no vs Pakistan in Abu Dhabi the other). Probably worth noting that before scoring two 150+ efforts and a 56 in his most recent four innings he’d gone 13 straight bats without passing fifty... coinciding with trips to Sri Lanka and Australia. Henry Nicholls is clearly one who has a point to prove on this current tour.
As does Colin de Grandhomme, supposing he gets games. He’s been out injured most of the summer and the emergence of Kyle Jamieson has made things a bit slippery for him. CDG didn’t play an overseas Test until his 11th match, which was when the ‘Caps went to the UAE... and he proceeded to score ducks in two of his first three away innings. He also only passed fifty in one innings of the Aussie tour as well. But he did bag an 83 in Sri Lanka so as bad as that disparity looks right now we’ve still gotta go easy on the brake-pedal because of his limited games outside of NZ. A lil ironic though given he’s a guy who grew up in Zimbabwe, a naturalised kiwi, who has struggled in overseas games to date. Hopefully he gets a chance to play Test cricket in Africa before he’s done.
BJ Watling does not have that issue. BJ Watling is a man who thrives in direct correlation to how tough the situation he finds himself in so to see such a small gap between his home and away averages... mate. He’s way down there in the differentials with all the bowlers whose numbers don’t change much on account of they don’t score that much. Tom Latham is another one whose away numbers are really good. Those two are the only ones in the current squad other than the two All-Timers with multiple hundies. Not sure what to make of Trent Boult hanging out as high as he does on the list, s’pose he’s had a few cash-ins at the bottom of the order against exhausted travelling bowling attacks. Meanwhile Tom Blundell’s numbers show the glowing effect of scoring a hundred at the MCG... and Daryl Mitchell and Kyle Jamieson’s batting stats are just begging for some away matches to bring them back down to earth. All due respect there but let’s be honest.
And now the bowlers...
Matt Henry is the only lad in the current squad whose bowling is better away than it is at home... but oh sweet jeezus look at the bloatedness of both those figures. This is a guy who made his Test debut at Lords and has toured Australia twice as well as India once so you’d have thought his known-awful bowling average would be explained by that... and yet he’s worse in Aotearoa. Best to move on quickly, methinks.
Neil Wagner has been swept into the gamelessness of the away side of things with only 18 of his 51 Tests coming outside of New Zealand. Part of that is because when the Caps want an extra spinner he’s often been the guy to make way... yet those overall away numbers remain heroic in typical Neil Wagner fashion. He is, after all, a man who specialises in mental warfare for whom pitch and atmospheric conditions are a mere triviality.
His away average is even better than Ajaz Patel’s who has been dealt a rough blow by that same gamelessness given that he’s the overseas specialist spinner. Hasn’t taken a single wicket in Aotearoa but he’s literally bowled the Blackcaps to victory away from home. Oddly, but not surprisingly, Mitchell Santner goes in the opposite direction where he’s perfectly decent in local conditions and terrible away from home. Remember that his batting stats have a similar trend to them. As much as anyone in the current group he feels like a cricketer whose skill set is particularly tailored to kiwi pitches. At least in the longer formats... chuck him a white ball and give the batting side a run rate to worry about and he’s right in his element no matter where he is.
Tim Southee and Trent Boult’s stats are so ridiculously similar in overseas Tests, it’s crazy. Though Boult does take a dip for the better at home. Don’t even know what else to say about them. Fantastic numbers. Same thing can be said about Kyle Jamieson only it’d be an understatement... but obviously he’s awaiting some away games to balance his start to Test cricket out. Then again, if you could pick the perfect first tour for him then it’d involve a juicy red duke ball on those English wickets so let’s not necessarily go assuming he’ll revert too much.
Colin de Grandhomme’s batting may have huge swings depending on where he’s playing but interesting to see his bowling is basically unaffected. Roughly two wickets per game, average in the low-30s, low strike-rate. Oh and how about Doug Bracewell? Hasn’t played a Test match since 2016 and it shows. He’s a man from a begotten time and place... when the Blackcaps used to play a decent number of away games. Average doesn’t do too flash by the splits but he does have two five-fors overseas... gonna bet you can remember at least one of them pretty vividly. 6/40 versus Australia at Hobart, yeah boy. The other one was 5/85 on debut against Zimbabwe. The wickets dried up quickly after that though: take out his first five Tests and his overall bowling average is over fifty.
Also of a begotten age is Kane Williamson The Bowler. He’s bowled a mere 18 overs in his last 26 Test matches. Not even really worth considering his stats... also shout out to Ross Taylor and Tom Blundell for having bowled random spare overs which made the research process slightly more niggly than it needed to be.
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