2021 Kiwi County Tour: T20 1st 11 (Aotearoa T20 Depth)
The big cricketing theme at the Niche Cache is wiggling towards T20 World Cup and as the Kiwi County Tour mahi rolls on, optimism grows in these pages of what the Blackcaps could do in another major tournament. World Test Championship success was fabulous and the peak of my kiwi cricket fandom, don't put a lid on what this current crop of cricketers can do though. I mean, take a geeze at this Aotearoa T20 team consisting solely of players on the KCT in England...
Devon Conway
Finn Allen
Glenn Phillips
Daryl Mitchell
Jimmy Neesham
Colin de Grandhomme
Kyle Jamieson
Adam Milne
Ish Sodhi
Logan van Beek
Lockie Ferguson
12th Man - Matt Quinn
Whipping that team up wasn't a difficult task as I've been covering 12 lads in the T20 Blast and with Auckland seamer Quinn on the fringe of Kent's T20 team, all it took was putting the 11 kiwis into a team. Forget T20 cricket, I reckon this team would represent the KCT whanau nicely across four-day and 50-over cricket as well.
If you're reading this, you probably know that the Blackcaps used 17 different players in two Tests vs England and there was still a surplus of players from that squad as the likes of Rachin Ravindra and Jacob Duffy enjoyed net and pub sessions. Will Young is also part of the KCT whanau and he isn't playing T20 Blast, so I didn't include him here.
The key point here is to ponder if that team listed above was representing Aotearoa at a T20 World Cup, they'd go alright ... right? Not champion status, yet as we saw in the WTC Final there is something different to Aotearoa sport where our standing as the greatest sporting nation on the planet is based around intangibles; maybe team culture, team-first ideals and good vibes would help this team compete against the more fancied nations.
All of which is rude to Logan van Beek who is a certified Netherlands international and in a similar vein to international rugby league, we're all about the abundance mindset around here with enough talent to share. Van Beek finished 3rd in Super Smash wickets last summer, two spots ahead of Jimmy Neesham and that gives this KCT team two top-five bowlers from last summer's Super Smash. Finn Allen, Devon Conway and Daryl Mitchell were all in the top-five for batsmen.
Both Conway and Glenn Phillips are getting wicket-keeping game time over in England, so one of them can take up residence behind the sticks. I love Phillips' fielding and he's now getting more bowling opportunities with his offies, so with Ish Sodhi as the only frontline spinner in the team I would have Conway at wicket-keeper and Phillips adding spice where ever he wants.
Kane Williamson, Tim Southee and Trent Boult are all highly effective T20 cricketers who should be in any Blackcaps T20I squad. Williamson and Boult are the only kiwis to consistently play at least five Indian Premier League games consistently which is a nod to their IPL performances. Don't sleep on Southee who one could argue is in the midst of his best T20I bowling calendar year since debuting in 2008. Southee has averaged sub-20 in T20I cricket twice...
2013: 1inns, 4ov - 3w @ 12.66avg/9.50rpo.
2021: 8inns, 29ov - 12w @ 19.50avg/8.06rpo.
Southee has taken exactly 12 wickets in each of the last four years and the three years prior to this all coming with averages between 25-30. Now Southee already has his 12 wickets this year and he's averaging sub-20. That is to suggest that these three Blackcaps matua are genuine 1st 11 T20I cricketers for Aotearoa, despite/in spite of/along with their Test cricket glory.
Luteru Taylor is always fascinating in this regard, shaded by the Niche Cache's love for Taylor. As much as our job is to broadcast kiwi sports excellence without too much personal opinion, Taylor's different and personally I would love to have Taylor at least in a T20 World Cup squad and even in the 1st 11 where his experience and craft is crucial. Taylor fell out of favour in this arena via some lean T20I years around 2014-2017 where his amount of runs and strike-rate fell off. Since then...
2018: 10inns, 191 runs @ 38.20avg/126.49sr.
2019: 11inns, 276 runs @ 27.60avg/125.45sr.
2020: 7inns, 166 runs @ 33.20avg/127.69sr.
Not as emphatic as some other kiwi batsmen, solid nonetheless. When packaged with Taylor's value as a squad member in tough conditions and a high pressure environment, a joker like myself would love to see Taylor crack that T20 World Cup squad. Folks would also have different opinions about Colin Munro and in choosing to play Big Bash League instead of Super Smash (NZC keep making this awkward), Munro was kinda shafted from the Blackcaps T20I team.
Munro's last T20I action was early in 2020 and he faded off into T20 oblivion with scores of: 21, 7, 6, 30, 46, 59, 26, 14, 64, 15. None of which seems like a reason to be dropped and this all gets funkier when checking in with what Munro has done since being dropped...
2020/21 Big Bash League: 5th - 15inns, 443 runs @ 31.64avg/128.03sr, 3 x 50.
2021 Pakistan Super League: 8th - 7inns, 285 runs @ 57avg/169.64sr, 2 x 50.
Munro was a lot better in the PSL than Martin Guptill's 69 runs in 6inns @ 11.50avg/104.54sr. In my KCT T20 team named, I've got Conway and Allen opening the batting together and if Allen continues on his trajectory that will be a genuine possibility moving forward. The Blackcaps have used Williamson, Guptill and Munro in T20I opening slots in recent years and right there we have five opening batsmen competing for starting spots.
Want to complicate this further? Guptill's been pretty good in T20I cricket for Aotearoa apart from a big dip in 2020 when he didn't chuck up a 50+ score in 10inns and had an overall strike-rate of 135.03. That dip came after two good years though and then Guppy bounced back with 318 runs in 8inns @ 39.75avg/158.20sr this year.
See what's happening here? At every juncture, various options are presented. I'd still want Mitchell Santner joining Sodhi in their spin-twin role, Tim Seifert had plenty of buzz about him heading into last summer and is some kind of factor in a T20I yarn. Mark Chapman, Doug Bracewell, Blair Tickner, Scott Kuggeleijn, Hamish Bennett and Todd Astle have all featured in recent T20I squads as well.
Every team is going to have ample T20 World Cup selection options, so Aotearoa is not special in this regard. What is special is that this hasn't always been the case for Aotearoa, especially not with so many options playing at such high levels. That starts with a highly competitive team named strictly from England's T20 Blast and the same competitive selection angles that led to WTC success are starting to emerge in Blackcaps T20I cricket.
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