When Devon Conway came to the fabulous land of Aotearoa, many folks spotted a talented batter but they probably didn't forecast how Conway would then finesse international cricket. This week marks a special moment for Aotearoa cricket as Martin Guptill and Suzie Bates sit first for T20I runs, plus things get funkier when pondering how Sophie Devine is the best player in T20 wahine cricket and Conway is delivering exceptional statistical juice.

All time top run scorers in T20 international cricket, blokes and wahine lists

Note the nationalities of the two leaders 🇳🇿 pic.twitter.com/vmYSLJOA9h
— The Niche Cache (@thenichecache) August 15, 2022

Conway reached his 20th T20I innings against West Indies and this saw him enter the Cricinfo rankings with the third highest T20I batting average, ever. Conway averages 47.20 and the two blokes ahead of him are Mohammad Rizwan and Virat Kohli, both of whom average over 50. Conway has a slightly higher strike-rate than Kohli (138.28sr) and this means Conway has the highest strike-rate of the top-five T20I averages.

This is bolstered by Conway's T20 average of 43.40 after 120inns, which is ranked seventh all time. Babar Azam and KL Rahul are the only blokes from Test playing nations who are also currently playing ranked ahead of Conway, while Chris Harris is ranked first (70.66avg). Conway has the third highest T20I batting average and seventh best T20 average, so yeah his T20 World Cup final absence was kinda notable.

Digging deeper leads us to find that Conway averages 40+ in all six formats of batting. This marker can be set at 43avg and while Conway's First Class, List-A and T20 averages all sit between 43-48, Conway is in pursuit of averaging 50+ in all three international formats. Conway averages 51 in Test cricket and 75 in ODIs (only three games) so the next few months of cricket for Conway will either see things mellow out, or the 50+ average hype keep building.

The yarn from South Africa when Conway was brewing with Wellington Firebirds was all about the level of cricket Conway played in South Africa - Conway only dominated this level and couldn't step up to that level etc. Whatever the reason was for Conway wanting a change of scenery, the fact that Conway has merely taken his Aotearoa domestic cricket exploits to the international arena ensures Conway's elite mana.

After averaging 39.66 in his first PS campaign (2017/18), Conway led all Plunket Shield run-scorers in back to back seasons (2018-20) and averaged 80+ in both campaigns. A key indicator of supreme domestic batting prowess is multi-format domination and while Conway exploded with PS runs, those seasons also saw Conway finish first for Super Smash runs.

Conway showed flashes of his talent in South Africa, established his turangawaewae in Aotearoa and he has since seamlessly transitioned to the highest level. Now the Blackcaps are building to a T20 World Cup with one of the best T20/T20I batters in the world fizzing to contribute after his absence last year.

Conway only registered one 50+ score in the Test series against England and that amounts to a niggly patch for Conway. The next six games are all ODIs for Aotearoa though, starting with games vs West indies this week and then a cheeky trip to Australia. All of these games are part of the Super League and as Conway has only played three ODIs, this presents an intriguing phase in learning more about Conway's legendary start to international cricket.

Join the Niche Cache Patreon whanau to support our kiwi sports content straight up, get a karma boost and find extra podcasts.

Every Monday and Friday we fire off an email with bonus content. Sign up here!

Peace and love.