As Aotearoa's Blackcaps continue to swing through Europe, these trackers will pop up to focus on enticing yarns such as Finn Allen's T20 slugging. Allen has commanded various Niche Cache deep dives since his fabulous summer of Super Smash destruction and he is now chasing T20 World Cup selection, which will require a return to his best slugging mahi.

The trickiest stage of this Euro excursion for Allen has been tucked away. Allen opened in all three ODIs against Ireland with 99 runs @ 33avg/104.21sr and despite not being as dominant as other kiwi batters, Allen showed wrinkles of his development. Allen is at his best when whacking boundaries and there is now a steady record of Allen not being as good when he needs to wiggle through adversity in longer formats.

Allen flashed this growth against Ireland. Allen finished with an overall strike-rate over 100 for the series, but scored 6 runs off 9 balls in the first game before sitting on 10 runs off 22 balls at a point in the second ODI to finish on 60 runs @ 103.44sr. Early in the third ODI, Allen was on 2 runs off 8 balls before winding up on 33 runs @ 117.85sr.

Aotearoa lost early wickets in the first two games, then Allen was dismissed in the 10th over of the third ODI. Allen battled through tricky stages of these 50-over games, either grinding for no rewards or grinding to cash in as his innings went along. Sometimes Allen was the bloke to go nuts, sometimes Martin Guptill flexed. Allen has shown similar one-day domestic mahi in recent years with List-A career strike-rate of 109.04, although it's a bit easier to smash domestic bowlers than it is ODI bowlers.

Now Blackcaps enter a T20I phase, with the World Cup looming. Allen's ODI stuff helps set up the idea of growth and development which could be a factor in his upcoming cricket. During the 2020/21 kiwi summer and 2021 winter in England, Allen cracked 11 scores over 50 in T20 cricket (35inns) which has now been trimmed down to a trio of scores over 50 during last summer and Allen's recent T20 Blast stint (20inns).

This can be better laid out by comparing Allen's last two Super Smash and T20 Blast campaigns...

2020/21 Super Smash: 11inns, 512 runs @ 56.88avg/193.93sr.

2021/22 Super Smash: 11inns, 280 runs @ 25.45avg/200sr.

2021 T20 Blast: 13inns, 399 runs @ 33.25avg/159.60sr.

2022 T20 Blast: 9inns, 190 runs @ 21.11avg/179.24sr.

Allen's production has dipped, countered by his strike-rates increasing across both competitions. Allen now faces Ireland and after dabbling in ODI cricket, Allen now seems primed to go bonkers in his favoured format. This Euro excursion could end with Allen adding Ireland, Scotland and Netherlands to his short list of T20I opponents (Bangladesh) which isn't an elite crop of opponents but provides a ramp up of intensity for Allen.

Blackcaps T20I 1st 11 status doesn't feel realistic for Allen right now. Squad selection, to step up when required is a steadier approach. Now is the time for Allen to elevate his T20 mahi to an international level and with Aotearoa's depth well stocked, this could be a crucial phase for Allen to demand World Cup selection.

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Peace and love.