Blackcaps vs Australia Test Series Debrief
The sharp pain of losing to Australia gets a whole lot nigglier when Aotearoa is in a position, or multiple positions to win and instead of celebrating historical mahi, the status-quo of losing to Australia continues. To be fair to the Blackcaps, most New Zealand sports teams sit in Australia’s shadow and the only teams with recent wins over Australia are in the rugby codes.
There is a whiff of doom and gloom around the Blackcaps Test team after being swept by Australia. The loss in Wellington felt more concerning than what went down in Christchurch and various improvements were made between these two Tests. As stink as the performance in Wellington was and as crappy as losing to Australia makes us all feel, giving space to those emotions can provide a more hopeful outlook.
New Zealand is not a cricketing fortress right now. White Ferns have struggled in various home series, most recently the T20 series loss to Pakistan late last year. Since winning the first World Test Championship, Blackcaps have lost Tests in Aotearoa to Bangladesh, South Africa and England. All three of those losses were by large margins as well with an 8-wicket loss to Bangladesh before losses by 198 runs and 267 runs against South Africa and England.
The Blackcaps Test team has changed since winning the WTC in 2021. Blackcaps are not as good in Test cricket as they were and that makes sense given the quality of players who retired or opted out. Expectations need to be adjusted. We probably should have made this adjustment earlier as players retired and foreseen what was happening, or at least recalibrated as Blackcaps finished sixth in the second WTC cycle.
Australia are undisputedly the best team in the world. The quartet of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon is the best bowling unit in the world. For a nation that produces legendary cricketers every decade, these four bowlers are building a case as Australia's best bowling unit. Individually, they are all among the best bowlers from Australia and while their batting group isn't quite as good; Aussie batting legends are in that team and these batters have helped Australia win multiple ICC championships.
Something that lingered while stressing about which Aussie bowler would fire up for the next spell, was that this Blackcaps bowling group is not in the same realm. There are selection mishaps and some horrible production issues that hindered New Zealand in this Test series. Coming up against this fantastic Australian team, Blackcaps called upon Ben Sears to make his Test debut and Sears started this summer in the Fifth Tier Of Blackcaps Seamers.
Kyle Jamieson started the home summer against South Africa and he got injured. Will O'Rourke was called up to replace Jamieson and he got injured. Then Neil Wagner retired, leaving Sears as the sixth seamer used by Blackcaps in four Tests. Meanwhile Australia’s quartet played every Test this summer. Australia rolled out their strongest bowling unit, the best bowling unit in the world and Blackcaps were handing out Test debuts.
O'Rourke is 22-years-old and Sears is 26-years-old, both can hit 140km/h and they move the ball. O'Rourke smashes the seam and his home deck is Hagley Oval, where other lads who smash the seam such as Cummins and Matt Henry excelled. Sears offered lovely seam presentation and out-swing to righties, while also serving up wicket-taking balls through effort.
As Blackcaps suffered losses in Aotearoa over recent years, many folks moaned about the age of the Blackcaps. This summer and specifically in two Tests against Australia, two young seamers who hover around 140km/h were given opportunities. Be careful what you wish for because it's really, really hard to win against the best team in the world when introducing youngsters to Test cricket.
The reality of this series and the summer is that the best Blackcaps were younger players. Kane Williamson scored the most runs (619) of Blackcaps going back to the tour of Bangladesh earlier in the summer, while Rachin Ravindra and Glenn Phillips are the only other Blackcaps who scored 300+ runs. Phillips has settled as an all-rounder and his 17 wickets are second only to Matt Henry's 23w this summer, while Ravindra was efficient in his overs. O'Rourke and Sears made their debuts, providing key breakthroughs in their limited appearances.
All of which has happened since Sam Wells took over his chief selector. Phillips was shuffled into the Test 1st 11 for the tour of Bangladesh and a lack of runs from Henry Nicholls saw Ravindra selected in his spot. With Jamieson injured, two debutant seamers were added to the sable of bowlers. This is the start of a new era for the Blackcaps Test group.
No New Zealand Test team will defeat Australia with Williamson averaging 19 (bat) and Tim Southee averaging 61 (ball) as they did in this series. The Blackcaps batting line up used to be staunch, full of gritty competitors and now Tom Blundell is averaging 9.8 in the WTC. This is the first year of Daryl Mitchell's Test career in which he has played three Tests while averaging less than 40 and he isn't reliable as he was previous years.
Devon Conway may have helped and while he is also in a slump (11.7avg in WTC), Conway is still one of the best batters in Aotearoa right now. The presence of Conway would have ensured that Will Young didn't open and despite Young doing any role the team requires, he isn't opening in a full strength Test team.
It would have been pretty awkward if Scott Kuggeleijn scored more runs than his knock off 44 in the second innings, but he didn't. Kuggeleijn wasn't much of a factor with the ball either and Mitchell Santner could have been just as useful, if not more, regardless of whether conditions favoured seam or spin. This is the wonkiest selection piece, but even then Blackcaps lost three seamers during the summer and this is the result when diving so deep into the depth chart.
Matt Henry was exceptional though. Henry was one of four Blackcaps to score 100+ runs in this series and had a strike-rate of 114, while the other three (Ravindra, Latham, Mitchell) all had strike-rates below 55. Henry was the only Blackcap to take 7+ wickets against Australia and he snared 17w @ 15avg/3.1rpo which makes him the only kiwi with 20+ wickets in the WTC (23w @ 16avg/2.8rpo).
After four Tests, this is Henry's best year of Test bowling by a hefty margin (first year below 26avg) and how he builds on his form will be fascinating. Henry averages 26 in Aotearoa and 47 overseas which fits into the storyline of most Test cricketers around the world, but Blackcaps need Henry to develop into an effective seamer for all conditions. Having made his debut in 2015 and now serving up career-best mahi, Henry has shown his ability to improve and opportunities will arise for him to lead the bowling unit.
Upon reflection, the hype for this Test series didn't really align with the competitive match up. Australia is an excellent team who are the best Test team in the world because of what they do overseas (Test wins in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, England and NZ since start of 2022). Blackcaps were playing at home but this advantage has diminished since WTC glory in 2021.
Seam bowling depth was tested and confidence would have been higher if Jamieson was available, even if O'Rourke and Sears were competing for selection rather than plugging in for injuries. Fresh Test players like Phillips and Ravindra were challenged. Blackcaps went into battle against Australia with lads like Blundell in form slumps so dark that they are no longer certain starters, others like Conway never got a crack at switching out of that slump.
It seems kinda insane to expect this Blackcaps team to beat the best team in the world. Yes, Blackcaps had decent patches in these Tests and flashed winning mahi but that's the point here. Australia are the best because they battle for longer, absorb momentum changes and execute their legendary skills. A youngish Blackcaps group competed, dragged out-of-form lads with them and had a crack. This is the start of a new era for New Zealand Test cricket and overseas tours will offer more challenges for them this year.
Blackcaps Stats This Summer
Batting
Kane Williamson: 619 runs @ 56avg/50sr
Rachin Ravindra: 446 runs @ 55avg/55sr
Glenn Phillips: 314 runs @ 34avg/81sr
Daryl Mitchell: 292 runs @ 32avg/47sr
Tom Latham: 268 runs @ 22avg/43sr
Matt Henry: 138 runs @ 23avg/110sr
Will Young: 135 runs @ 27avg/36sr
Tim Southee: 122 runs @ 13avg/79sr
Tom Blundell: 98 runs @ 9avg/60sr
Devon Conway: 94 runs @ 11avg/35sr
Scott Kuggeleijn: 70 runs @ 17avg/87sr
Kyle Jamieson: 60 runs @ 20avg/43sr
Mitchell Santner: 38 runs @ 19avg/69sr
Henry Nicholls: 25 runs @ 6avg/35sr
Bowling
Matt Henry: 23w @ 16avg/2.8rpo
Glenn Phillips: 17w @ 17avg/2.9rpo
Ajaz Patel: 14w @ 23avg/3.5rpo
Mitchell Santner: 12w @ 17avg/2.4rpo
Will O'Rourke: 11w @ 17avg/2.8rpo
Tim Southee: 10w @ 52avg/3.1rpo
Kyle Jamieson: 8w @ 22avg/2.6rpo
Rachin Ravindra: 7w @ 20avg/2.4rpo
Ben Sears: 5w @ 32avg/4.8rpo
Ish Sodhi: 3w @ 48avg/4.3rpo
Scott Kuggeleijn: 2w @ 66avg/4.1rpo
Neil Wagner: 2w @ 37avg/3rpo
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