The absence of Kane Williamson and Luteru Taylor has amplified the 'Who is using what bats?' funk in the Blackcaps Test team. Williamson is a headline act for Gray Nicolls and while Twilight Taylor still features his nifty Gunn & Moore, Taylor now leaves headline status to Christchurch's Ben Stokes. For Gray Nicolls and GM though, their hearty presence in the Blackcaps remains solid with the rise of other batters long associated with either brand.

Tom Latham is now the big donnie as far as bat sponsorship goes in the Blackcaps with the Kookaburra stalwart currently captain of Aotearoa. It appears as though Latham is rocking the Kookaburra Kahuna and Latham leads the Kookaburra crew in the Blackcaps, with the other notable Kookaburra batter being Tom Blundell. Blundell leaves the green swag to Latham and instead rolls with the Kookaburra Ghost for a more sleek vibe.

Kookaburra also have Matt Henry and Kyle Jamieson in their roster. Henry blazed runs down the order recently to put his Kookaburra Rapid in the spotlight - both Blundell and Henry are displayed as poster-boys for their respective bats with Kookaburra Aotearoa. The Kookaburra Bubble has been recently used by the bowlers, but Jamieson now seems to be using the Kookaburra Pace which dips into the blue swag.

GM have absorbed the absence of Taylor through promotions of Will Young and Devon Conway. Both have been with GM throughout their respective rises in domestic cricket and after dabbling in GM Noir vibes, Taylor is now listed as using the GM Chroma in his Twilight Taylor phase which is the same willow used by Conway.

There is no official listing for Young which perhaps allude to his swift rise into Test cricket. Young seems to have used a bunch of different GM bats as I've seen him roll with the all black swag, a more transparent sticker vibe and a black/highlighter swag. Right now Young appears to be using the GM Prima and I'll stash this away for next summer's bat check to see how Young progresses through the GM ranks; Taylor's the legend and Conway's risen with hype, leaving Young as the low key GM bloke.

Williamson's absence is absorbed by the rise of Daryl Mitchell, joining Henry Nicholls as the lead lads for Gray Nicolls. Williamson is listed as using the GN Delta and as I yarn through all of this, I'm enjoying the vibe of different batters having their own pocket with each brand. Nicholls and Mitchell don't follow Williamson into his Delta pocket with Gray Nicolls in the same way that Blundell's got his own space with Kookabura.

Nicholls is listed as using the GN Cobra and Mitchell the GN Maax. The Cobra is more in tune with GN's red swag while Mitchell has sky blue vibes down the back of his bat and after a steady start to his international career, Mitchell opened for Aotearoa at the T20 World Cup and is now setting up his shop in the Blackaps Test middle order. All of which has sped up Mitchell's rise through Gray Nicolls.

Colin de Grandhomme's return to the Test team and his recent century put SS (Ton) Sunridges back on the radar. A few summers ago I highlighted how de Grandhomme, BJ Watling and Jeet Raval all moved from Kookaburra to SS. Since that move we have seen de Grandhomme and Raval dip out of the Test team while Watling retired last year, making de Grandhomme's knock rather funky for SS in this context.

SS have a wide range of styles and while kiwi cricket fans are well acquainted with the classic SS style that felt as though was always present in a game of grassroots cricket, the SS 'Retro' vibe provides a fresh angle. The regular SS swag is still a staple and there is a wide variety of options for the style with SS stickers on the front and back, or SS on the front and 'Ton' on the back.

The Retro pocket has SS on the front and Sunridges down the back which looks crisp, especially when used by the coolest cricketer ever in CDG. It's hard to pinpoint which SS Sunridges Retro bat de Grandhomme uses as there are a lot of them that all look fairly similar, however the vibe is most important here.

This leaves us with the regular Adidas duo of Tim Southee and Neil Wagner, the latter is another bowler to enjoy some batting spotlight recently. As noted in most bat checks this sponsorship is more about footwear for the bowlers (most bowlers wear Adidas or Asics kicks - unless they are New Balance like Trent Boult) and while none of this is certain, Blackcaps mainly use Oakley or Adidas sunglasses.

Adidas is also funky because it seems to operate via Aotearoa distributors and while there is such a vibe with the wider brands that house Gray Nicolls for example, I believe that Adidas deals come via the distributors as opposed to the brand. On the other hand Southee and Wagner are legends themselves and Adidas has a hearty presence in Aotearoa as it's linked to the All Blacks, so we'll keep learning here.

Two more notes...

Rachin Ravindra has become a Test factor with DSC (Delux Sports Company).

Ajaz Patel's epic Test haul in India was great, although Patel also finished not-out in all four innings of that series with his Gray Nicolls.

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Peace and love.