The Many Wrinkles Of Glenn Phillips' Move To Otago Volts
Back in March, Otago Daily Times reported that Glenn Phillips would venture to the deep south and join younger brother Dale at Otago Volts. Stashing that away like a long lost baggy provided some time to ponder such a move and the official announcement of this move last week offered more insight as Phillips outlined his all-round ambitions as part of his decision. This brings together various estuaries of cricketing wrinkles as they merge into the ocean and anytime estuaries are present, it's time to get deep in the mangroves.
For Otago cricket, signing Phillips is likely to wrap up years of niggly luck with recruits. Otago have made nifty recruitment moves such as snaring Dale from Auckland, plus Nick Kelly from Northern Districts and Kelly has now flourished as one of the best domestic batters across all formats. Jacob Gibson also left Northern for Otago recently, while Mitch Renwick and Jarrod McKay have both moved down from Central over the past few years.
Otago have given opportunities to blokes who were struggling for game time elsewhere and while there are various positive cases, for whatever reason Otago has also had rotten luck. Warren Barnes and Shawn Hicks both made moves down from Auckland only to retire relatively early in their respective careers due to injuries. Dean Foxcroft moved from Central to Otago and last played weeks prior to the start of the pandy back in 2020, before being stuck overseas and unable to play in the following two summers.
Otago's recruitment might be the closest thing in Aotearoa sport to the NZ Warriors curse as they have recruited some of the best young cricketers (many of whom are kiwi-Africans), only for these moves to be struck down by dark arts. Praise Aotearoa that Glenn doesn't fall victim to this.
Dale has already established himself as one of Otago's best batters with his 587 runs @ 45.15avg in last summer's Plunket Shield and a First Class average of 37.39 headlining that yarn. Everyone knows that Glenn is one of Aotearoa's best cricketers and while he continues to dominate T20 leagues around the world, the elder Phillips brother loves to jack up runs in Aotearoa domestic cricket.
Here are Phillips' batting averages since his debut season in 2014/15...
FC: 36 - 32 - 60 - 37 - 42 - 49.
LA: 6 - 43 - 32 - 33.5 - 47.5 - 42.
T20: 42 - 21 - 22 - 26 - 29 - 32.
In his first three seasons, Phillips averaged 40+ in each format once. After different peaks in his first three seasons, Phillips has improved in each format across the next three seasons. That translates to Phillips being a monster of a youngster and then continuing to improve as he matures. Phillips' mahi last summer was exceptional and the basic premise of a 25-year-old who averages 39 (FC), 36 (LA) and 32 in T20 cricket with a strike-rate of 140.5 is bonkers.
Otago get that bonkers 25-year-old and Phillips is chasing further growth to make his multi-format Blackcaps case undeniable. Phillips snapped up a Test opportunity with the late call up to debut in Sydney against Australia where he grabbed a cheeky knock of 52, but he has been outside the Blackcaps Test squad bubble since then and is yet to play an ODI. In this cycle of two T20 World Cups (UAE last year, Australia this year), being a 1st 11 T20I player is perhaps more important than ODI selection but Phillips obviously wants to command selection in all formats.
Churning out the best batting of his career helps, as does his bowling. Phillips could get another emergency Blackcaps Test call up as he is playing T20 Blast cricket in England with Gloucestershire, although Michael Bracewell has that back up batter/spin option spot right now. Bracewell was selected in this role ahead of Rachin Ravindra and Mitchell Santner wasn't a factor in the discussion. There doesn't appear to be much separating Bracewell from Phillips in this equation.
The case can be made for Phillips to be in every Test and ODI squad, pushing for 1st 11 selection. For whatever reason Phillips is overlooked and while that's a full yarn itself, Phillips wants to demand selection and that pursuit of development is admirable. Phillips is straight up one of Aotearoa's best batters as well as one of the best fielders in the world, while his bowling mahi has been a low key funky wrinkle over recent summers.
The easiest way to slice up Phillips' bowling mahi for Auckland is to compare it with Mark Chapman - who Gavin Larsen highlighted back in 2018 as being groomed for this role. Last summer Phillips bowled 106.2 overs with 18 wickets across Plunket Shield, Ford Trophy and Super Smash while Chapman registered 14.5ov with 1w.
Phillips has bowled in all six FC seasons he's played in Aotearoa, taking 2+ wickets in all six and bowling 300+ deliveries in four of them. Phillips has only started bowling with the white ball more recently for Auckland and even though he has leaped ahead of Chapman for spin mahi with Auckland, Phillips is still behind Will Somerville, Louis Delport and Adithya Ashok as Aces spinners.
Ashok didn't bowl in Plunket Shield as Auckland relied on the older Somverville and Delport, with Phillips chiming in. Ashok was fantastic in Super Smash and solid in Ford Trophy, commanding more opportunities this summer. Otago on the other hand rely heavily on lefty-leggy Michael Rippon with Anaru Kitchen adding extra overs consistently, while Ben Lockrose, Beckham Wheeler-Greenall and Josh Finnie provided white ball support.
Kitchen is now retired and Phillips could be Otago's second best spinner across all three formats this summer. This type of opportunity is also present in Ish Sodhi's move from Northern to Canterbury as Northern have Mitchell Santner as well as Joe and Fred Walker, while Canterbury's busiest Plunket Shield spinner was Theo van Woerkom who is yet to stamp his mark on domestic cricket.
Cole McConchie gets a heavy workload and does a solid job as an all-rounder, while Blake Coburn only played white ball cricket last summer and Todd Astle cruises around Super Smash. Sodhi was Northern's best spinner and would have enjoyed consistent selection with Northern, yet the whanau angle and the lack of high quality spin bowlers at Canterbury combined for a move that will feature plenty of Plunket Shield overs as the leading spinner along with white ball action.
Sodhi is a certified white ball Blackcap who has maintained a low key perch among the best Plunket Shield spinners (9w @ 17.44avg last summer) and he will have ample opportunities to shine a spotlight on his red ball mahi with Canterbury. Phillips has a whanau angle in his move to Otago cricket and is also settling in as a white ball Blackcap, now Phillips will bowl far more overs with Otago in all three formats.
This highlights a geographical spin idea as Canterbury and Otago don't have dominant spinners, while Auckland and Northern have a dominant spinner and a few more quality spin options. Drier conditions up north are an obvious factor with pitches in Whangarei, Auckland, Tauranga and Hamilton among the most spinny decks in Aotearoa.
Canterbury might have the deepest stock of seamers with consistent wicket-guzzlers like Will Williams, Henry Shipley and Ed Nuttall leading their domestic troop. Otago don't have that calibre of bowling unit which is evident in their Plunket Shield campaign where 10 bowlers were deployed and none averaged below 30. In FT and SS their best bowlers were spinners, which should improve with Phillips taking those overs.
Just as Sodhi's move to Canterbury ticks plenty of boxes, Phillips' move to Otago appears to be a logical decision. Phillips is in the best batting pocket of his career and is fresh off his busiest summer of bowling as he hunts further development and opportunity. Otago cricket get one of Aotearoa's best cricketers who is also eager to mature as a leader and after a summer of Otago Sparks optimism, Otago cricket appears to be laying strong foundations for young cricketers in the region.
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