Aotearoa's Blackcaps wrangled a win in the last game of their T20I tour of Bangladesh to lose the series 2-3. This has been a weird old series where most of what we've watched will be tucked away in our cricketing brains for future reference and as this Asian/Middle East excursion rolls on, the relevance of what went down in Bangladesh will fade off into the abyss.

Despite losing the series and Bangladesh delivering revenge for their tours of Aotearoa in which the Blackcaps bully opponents in home conditions, Tom Latham and Ajaz Patel finished as the leading run-scorer and wicket-taker respectively. Neither is a T20 trooper and while Latham has generally skipped Super Smash cricket, Patel's low key T20 mahi hasn't commanded much attention.

Patel finished with 10w @ 7.30avg/3.65rpo/12sr from 20 overs. Two Bangladesh bowlers took 8 wickets each, both from 14 overs and so their average and strike-rates are lower than Patel’s. Spinning all-rounders Cole McConchie and Rachin Ravindra were the only other kiwi bowlers to take 4+ wickets in this series and Scott Kuggeleijn's 3w @ 12.33avg/6.16rpo/12sr was the best of the kiwi seamers.

McConchie: 18.1ov, 7w @ 16.71avg/6.44rpo/15.5sr.

Ravindra: 19ov, 6w @ 13.83avg/4.36rpo/19sr.

There is an easy split there for the bowlers as the spinners led the way while the seamers battled through a niggly series. Patel has years of mahi tweaking his bowling, he has performed for Aotearoa in spin-friendly conditions and is best equipped to rise to the challenge he faced in Bangladesh. The best overall batsmen scored the most runs; Latham, Will Young and Henry Nicholls.

Latham, Young and Nicholls aren't noted T20 batsmen. Latham and Nicholls are experienced operators though and all three have the craft to score runs in Bangladesh. These lads can work the ball into gaps to find a single in a tough over and they have a variety of shots to score more runs such as the sweep shot. Latham was the only batsman to register two 50+ scores, let alone one.

Latham: 5inns, 159 runs @ 53avg/108.90sr.

Young: 5inns, 99 runs @ 19.80avg/86.08sr.

Nicholls: 5inns, 81 runs @ 20.25avg/96.42sr.

The funkiest note though is the Finn Allen vs Colin de Grandhomme comparison.

I'm not overly fussed by de Grandhomme's lack of runs in this series (18 runs in 5inns) because the fact that he was in this squad told the story. Despite a swashbuckling 2019 in which de Grandhomme jacked up thee 50+ scores in 11inns @ 27.36avg/156.77sr, de Grandhomme quickly fell off the T20I cliff in playing just three games last year where he scored 8 runs in 3inns. De Grandhomme was a staple of the Blackcaps T20I team as he played 11 games in 2018 and 2019, but his selection for this Blackcaps 2nd 11 group highlighted his sharp decline.

While all of that was happening, Allen has been on the rise. If there is a feed to takeaway from this series, it is the reinforcement of Allen's scope as a T20 batsman and without getting too dramatic here it feels like the rise of a notable white ball slugger. While de Grandhomme was demoted down to this series, Allen was building an extremely impressive T20 record of 33.97avg/171.02sr in 40 games across the Super Smash, T20 Blast and The Hundred.

Allen had scores of 15, 12 and 41 in this series. Those first two knocks caught my attention as Allen hit both with 150sr and the second knock came when no other kiwi batsman scored over 100sr. Allen then found a groove for last night's game with 41 runs @ 170.83sr. In the bubble of this series, Allen's slugging was notable because the rest of the kiwis couldn't do what Allen could but it's a stretch for me to celebrate knocks of 15 and 12, right?

This isn't a snack to takeaway, this is a mean feed for the whanau. Since the start of last summer, I've seen Allen go bonkers in the Super Smash, do exactly what he did in the Super Smash against Bangladesh in the home T20I series, head to the Indian Premier League where he absorbed T20 information (didn't play), shine in the T20 Blast and carry that into The Hundred. Then Allen takes all of that into a series where the Test opener is the best Blackcaps batsman and Allen simply keeps on slugging regardless of the niggly conditions.

Allen was the only batsman in this series to score 20+ runs with a strike-rate over 120.

Allen scored 68 runs @ 161.90sr.

That's kind of a bummer though as this series has seen Allen's T20I strike-rate dip below 200 to now sit at a crappy ol' 190.24.

Whether it was Allen's lack of Plunket Shield runs or whatever, Allen felt like a flash in the pan type of batsman as he dominated the Super Smash last summer. I've seen them all come and go being deep in domestic cricket mangroves so I was more curious than skeptical and since then Allen has ventured around the world replicating what he did in the Super Smash. I wanted Allen in the World Cup squad and whoever opens in the T20 World Cup will be under the pump as the best pure slugger from Aotearoa won't be there.

Something about the ease in Allen's T20 travels tells me that a special slugger is emerging.

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