Fresh off a summer in which Henry Shipley bumped his way into the Blackcaps mixer, he now joins Sussex for a stint of County Championship cricket. Sussex are in division two and start their game against Worcestershire on Sunday night (NZT) where Shipley could join forces with England Test seamer Ollie Robinson.

Sussex have enjoyed the services of Cheteshwar Pujara and Steven Smith prior to their World Test Championship final, now the big bopper from Canterbury steps in as their overseas import. This sets up a fascinating period of Kiwi County Tour mahi as Shipley follows Matt Henry and Will Williams in parlaying Canterbury nibble to County Championship dominance.

Williams left Canterbury to take up a full-time County Championship gig with Lancashire and he is cruising along with 15w @ 23.13avg/2.6rpo this year. With a First-Class bowling average of 21.66, Williams consistently snared wickets for Canterbury and enjoyed swift success in England. After two Plunket Shield campaigns averaging below 22, Williams moved to Lancashire and took 36w @ 17avg last year before serving up similar mahi this year.

Henry's performances on the KCT are to be expected given his Blackcaps pedigree and previous KCT yarns cover Henry's stuff this winter. A sneaky wrinkle in Henry's KCT with Somerset has been his batting (90 runs @ 145sr) and while Shipley has a similar bowling skillset to Williams and Henry, Shipley is also a solid batter with class to go with his slugging.

Let's compare batting averages for Henry | Shipley...

• First-Class: 20.9 | 24.78

• List-A: 12.21 | 18.25

• T20: 12.65 | 19.7

Shipley has higher averages than Henry in all three formats, but Henry is oozing confidence with his boundary-hitting. Last season in Ford Trophy for example, Henry had the highest batting strike-rate of all Canterbury batters (178) while Shipley operated at 79sr. There is scope for Shipley to adapt to batting in English conditions and even though he is unlikely to whack boundaries like Henry, Shipley could flourish as a crafty all-rounder.

Like Williams and Henry, Shipley thrives in conditions that offer swing/seam. Adjusting to the KCT flow will be tricky but Shipley is coming off a strong Aotearoa summer in which he averaged 13.91 in Ford Trophy, 27.21 in Plunket Shield and 16.25 in Super Smash. County Championship batters will be challenged by Shipley's quirky action that angles deliveries into right-handers, sometimes grooving from angle to swing, along with an upright seam that can nibble either way.

Shipley has now played five T20I games (70.5avg/10.84rpo) and eight ODI games (23.93avg/5.56rpo). Both are impacted by tours to India and Pakistan as part of second-tier Blackcaps teams that had plenty of runs scored against them. Shipley's ODI stats are boosted by 8w @ 7.87avg/4rpo in two games against Sri Lanka in home conditions and this builds a compelling idea of what Shipley can do in Aotearoa/English conditions.

Most importantly, Shipley's KCT stint will offer another development checkpoint. Various Blackcaps have learned their craft in County Championship cricket and Shipley will play against a wide range of batters, as well as the chance to deliver plenty of overs. Perhaps picking up tips and tricks from the Sussex homies as well.

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