2025 England Tour Of New Zealand: T20I Series Preview

New Zealand is 9-4 in T20Is this year and they take on England in their next series with these two teams sharing a 3-3 record since the start of 2020. Mitchell Santner and Rachin Ravindra return to the mix with Ben Sears and Ish Sodhi dropping out from the series against Australia.

Santner is captain and the best T20 spinner for Aotearoa so he will cruise straight into the 1st 11, while Ravindra has emerged as a 1st 11 T20 player for New Zealand in recent years. Ravindra has two 50+ scores in five innings this year year with a strike-rate of 164.3 which is only a smidge behind Tim Seifert's 165.6 for batters with 150+ runs in T20Is for Blackcaps this year.

Four batters have scored 200+ runs this year for Blackcaps with Seifert and Ravindra joined by Tim Robinson and Daryl Mitchell. The funky wrinkle here is that the two younger lads have scored 200+ runs in less than eight innings, while Seifert and Mitchell have had more than 10 innings of T20I batting this year.

Having Ravindra and Robinson averaging 40+ with strike-rates of 145 or higher showcases the talent of Aotearoa's depth. Bevon Jacobs continues his development journey in the Blackcaps environment and it's important to view Jacobs this way because he is still learning how his style of batting can be effective at the international level.

Jacobs started with a knock of 44* @ 146.6sr batting alongside Robinson (75* @ 131.5sr) against South Africa, before a duck to finish the tri-series and a knock of 20 runs @ 95sr against Australia. Jacobs had to help Robinson build a target against Australia in an innings where only three Blackcaps scored 20+ runs and while he hit just one boundary, Jacobs showed maturity and craft in that outing.

Tracking Ravindra, Robinson and Jacobs closely is vital right now because some of the older lads are under pressure. That is amplified by two of Aotearoa's top-five T20 batters in Finn Allen and Glenn Phillips being out injured, so there is lots of competition for spots in the batting department.

Devon Conway had scores of 1 and 0 against Australia. Having averaged 40+ in his first three years of T20I batting, Conway is now below 30avg for his third year in a row and Mark Chapman (14.8avg) is the only batter with a lower average this year for Blackcaps. More importantly though, Conway has not been over 140sr in his last five years of T20I batting and the blokes on the rise all score much quicker than Conway - if he scores runs.

The Conway situation may chill until Allen is back available. Allen is on 36avg/212sr in his five innings this year and Conway's T20I career strike-rate of 128.3 is a bit of a giggle compared to Allen's 163sr. Blackcaps can use Ravindra or Robinson as an opener to bump Conway out of that spot but Chapman's demise could leave more opportunities in the middle order.

Chapman is the only Blackcaps batter who has 50+ runs and an average below 20 this year, which is his second year of T20I batting with an average below 20. Chapman also has a record of 18.8avg/136sr for T20Is in Aotearoa and that is balanced by a strong record in T20Is vs England (43.6avg/142sr). Santner's return may be an issue for Chapman as his mahi under Michael Bracewell's captaincy (28avg/159sr) drops to 14.3avg/119sr under skipper Santner.

Skipper Santner's return may boost Bracewell's bowling and that would be useful given the decision to drop Ish Sodhi. Bracewell's T20 batting is 20.5avg/140sr when he isn't captain and that improves a bit to 28.1avg/136sr when he is captain, while his bowling as captain is on 73avg/9.1rpo and that drops to 16.2avg/6.6rpo when he isn't captain.

Bracewell's bowling has been trending in the wrong direction with two years below 15avg/6rpo blowing out to 37avg/8.6rpo last year and the 65avg/9.2rpo this year. He has been solid with the bat (31.4avg/154sr) this year and there could be room for Bracewell to focus on his batting more, especially if Ravindra gets spin overs and Jimmy Neesham is in the line up offering all-round mahi as well.

Sodhi didn't take his opportunity against Australia but he is part of a group of four bowlers with 10+ wickets and averages below 20 for Aotearoa this year. Even without taking a wicket against Australia, 2025 is Sodhi's best year of T20I bowling since 2017 and his record of 15.7avg/7.7rpo is in a different realm to Bracewell's bowling mahi this year.

Coach Rob Walter doesn't seem too fizzed about Sodhi's leggies and has steadily opted for more batting juice. That is good for Bracewell, Ravindra and perhaps Phillips when he's in the mix but Bracewell will need to take wickets and keep some sort of lid on England's batting to prove that he's can be the second spinner behind Santner.

Sears is out injured again and the lovely thing about cricket in Aotearoa is that there is an abundance of depth to cover injuries, as well as ensuring that players need to score runs and take wickets. Will O'Rourke, Adam Milne and Lockie Ferguson are also out injured, while Nathan Smith dropped out of the Test series in Zimbabwe due to injury but he hasn't played a T20I yet.

Matt Henry, Jacob Duffy, Zak Foulkes and Kyle Jamieson are the seam bowling unit with Neesham offering extra overs. We already know that Duffy is a T20 bowling legend for New Zealand...

Blackcaps T20I bowlers with 30+ wickets and averages below 22

  • Jacob Duffy: 41w @ 16.92avg

  • Lockie Ferguson: 64w @ 17avg

  • Daniel Vettori: 38w @ 19.68avg

  • Matt Henry: 39w @ 21.12avg

  • Trent Boult: 83w @ 21.43avg

Blackcaps T20I bowlers with 30+ wickets and below 7.5rpo

  • Daniel Vettori: 38w @ 5.7rpo

  • Nathan McCullum: 58w @ 6.82rpo

  • Mitchell Santner: 124w @ 7.06rpo

  • Lockie Ferguson: 64w @ 7.1rpo

  • Jacob Duffy: 41w @ 7.17rpo

  • Michael Bracewell: 31w @ 7.32rpo

Blackcaps T20I bowlers with 30+ wickets and strike-rates below 16

  • Jacob Duffy: 41w @ 14.1sr

  • Lockie Ferguson: 64w @ 14.3sr

  • Matt Henry: 39w @ 15.2sr

  • Jimmy Neesham: 51w @ 15.9sr

Having Henry and Neesham appear on those lists highlights the sneaky efficient seamers boosting Blackcaps in this format. Foulkes had 1w @ 14rpo vs Australia in his only appearance and England will be eager to smash him around as well so it will be interesting to see how Foulkes responds.

After 14 innings of T20I bowling, Foulkes is on 25.1avg/8.2rpo and after adding more overseas adventures to his stash, Foulkes has a T20 bowling record of 21.6avg/7.8rpo in 57 innings. Foulkes has played all three formats in his last 10 games with wickets in most of them and runs when he didn't take wickets, with potential to be an all-format-all-rounder.

Having Robinson, Foulkes and Jacobs in development spots against Australia and England will be useful for them as well as Blackcaps building out competitive depth. Robinson and Foulkes have already flashed top-tier Blackcaps ability, while players like Duffy and Ravindra have blasted into dominant T20 roles for Aotearoa over the past year. How these players perform against England will be crucial for winning games as well as ruffling feathers of those who have had comfy roles for the last few years.

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Peace and love.