2025 West Indies Tour Of New Zealand: T20 Series Debrief
New Zealand's 3-1 T20 series win vs West Indies takes them to a 12-6 record this year as Jacob Duffy continues his legendary mahi in this format. Duffy finished the series with 10 wickets and along with a resurgent Ish Sodhi's 7 wickets, they were the leading wicket-takers for Blackcaps. Tim Robinson finished as the leading run-scorer and is making a compelling case for a 1st 11 role moving forward.
Devon Conway was only two runs behind Robinson in this series which eased some of the pressure on him. The experience of watching Conway battle for every run tells a different story though and this is still the trickiest spot in the Blackcaps batting unit to forecast. Tim Seifert, Finn Allen and Glenn Phillips will all be hungry to get back in the mix when they return from injuries and the rise of Robinson only complicates matters further.
This flows through Rachin Ravindra as well because he didn't have a strong series. Ravindra is however in his best year of T20I batting and while he had a similar strike-rate (121.5) as Conway (117.8) in this series, Ravindra's is third for Blackcaps runs this year with a strike-rate of 150.7. Conway is still the only Blackcaps batter who has scored 100+ runs this year with a strike-rate below 135 (125.9).
Mark Chapman found some form and he finished this series with the highest strike-rate for all Blackcaps batters as the only kiwi over 200sr (203.8). Chapman has two scores over 30 in 14 innings this year and both were 50+ bangers at Eden Park. While he hasn't been a dominant force, Chapman is still grooving along at 159.3sr this year and that is a notable difference between him and Conway as they have both been grinding through lean phases.
Skipper Mitchell Santner is another trend that continues ... with the bat. Santner scored 77 runs @ 197sr vs West Indies and his strike-rate of 187.6 this year is the highest of his career, also his only year over 160sr. This also gives Santner the second highest batting strike-rate for Blackcaps in T20Is this year and along with Finn Allen's 211.7, they are the only kiwis over 165sr.
Santner is smacking runs in the middle order while Michael Bracewell and Jimmy Neesham are doing the opposite. Both averaged less than 7 with strike-rates below 90 vs West Indies which slots in to their 2025 mahi as Bracewell is the only Blackcap with 100+ runs averaging below 20 and Neesham's 8.2avg this year is lower than his bowling average of 14.7.
Yes, Neesham is averaging 14.7 with the ball this year and that means he has the lowest bowling average for all Blackcaps with 5+ wickets in 2025. Neesham also has a bowling strike-rate of 10.4 which is the lowest for all Blackcaps who have taken 1+ wickets. There is a reason why Neesham is still playing despite barely scoring a run and that's because his wicket-taking ability is top notch.
Here's how Neesham stacks up to other Blackcaps seamers in T20Is this year...
Jimmy Neesham: 17w @ 14.7avg/8.4rpo/10.4sr
Matt Henry: 14w @ 21.6avg/8.8rpo/14.7sr
Kyle Jamieson: 11w @ 29.6avg/9rpo/19.5sr
Zak Foulkes: 10w @ 28.8avg/8.9rpo/19.4sr
Adam Milne: 4w @ 19.5avg/6.5rpo/18sr
Ben Sears: 4w @ 36.2avg/10.2rpo/21.2sr
Will O'Rourke: 3w @ 34.3avg/6.8rpo/30sr
This isn't just a nifty paddock of form for Neesham either. Duffy joined a group of nine Blackcaps who have taken 50+ T20I wickets and aside from him being on track to settle as Aotearoa's best T20 bowler ever, Neesham is also in this group with a similar average to the other legends and a superior strike-rate to all except Duffy and Lockie Ferguson.
Lockie Ferguson: 64w @ 17avg/7.1rpo/14.3sr
Jacob Duffy: 53w @ 17.05avg/7.3rpo/13.8sr
Trent Boult: 83w @ 21.43avg/7.6rpo/16.7sr
Nathan McCullum: 58w @ 22.03avg/6.8rpo/19.3sr
Ish Sodhi: 157w @ 22.34avg/7.9rpo/16.7sr
Tim Southee: 164w @ 22.38avg/8rpo/16.7sr
Mitchell Santner: 130w @ 22.89avg/7.1rpo/19.3sr
Jimmy Neesham: 56w @ 23.71avg/8.9rpo/15.8sr
Adam Milne: 65w @ 24.64avg/8.3rpo/17.8sr
This is why Blackcaps rolled with Neesham as the third seamer for most of the series vs West Indies. How this looks as a few other seamers return to the mix will be interesting but for now Neesham is simply one of Aotearoa's best T20I bowlers and now Duffy has risen into this group alongside Santner and Sodhi.
Neesham is playing more as a bowler and Bracewell is more of a batter right now, bowling the fewest overs of the lads who bowled in at least four innings. Bracewell was efficient in his 7 overs with 2w @ 6.8rpo and if he had more runs, that would be the ideal package. Blackcaps tweaked their bowling attack away from Santner and Bracewell to include Sodhi for most of the West Indies series and the leggy responded with 7w @ 8.4rpo in his 12.3ov.
Sodhi is now second for Blackcaps wickets this year and he has the same 15-ish average as Duffy, with both below 8rpo. 2025 is still one of Sodhi's best years of T20I bowling and perhaps the best depending how you want to slice this pizza up...
2022: 28w @ 22.96avg/7.9rpo
2021: 27w @ 16.9avg/8.1rpo
2025: 19w @ 15.47avg/7.9rpo
2016: 11w @ 13.9avg/6.4rpo
2017: 11w @ 14.6avg/7.3rpo
Sodhi averages 20.4 under skipper Santner and that is the lowest of the five captains Sodhi has played at least five games under. Santner and Bracewell are both averaging 30+ in T20I bowling this year but Santner found a groove vs West Indies with 5w @ 7.7rpo which took his average to a smidge over 30 (31.9).
Matt Henry didn't play vs West Indies and Zak Foulkes only bowled 6ov (2w @ 11.8rpo), presenting a lovely opportunity for Kyle Jamieson to stack up game time. Jamieson bowled 15.5ov vs West Indies which was second busiest behind Duffy's 18ov and despite being the most expensive of the six bowlers who bowled 7+ overs, Jamieson played his role nicely in the bowling attack.
Henry is still ranked ahead of Jamieson, but based on selections alone, Jamieson leaped ahead of Foulkes in the series vs West Indies. As listed in the Blackcaps seamer stats above, Jamieson and Foulkes have similar mahi in T20Is this year so there probably needs to be more sorting done to split these two.
Jamieson is available and he's bowled 35.5 overs this year. That means he is in a better position than O'Rourke, Sears, Ferguson and Milne who are all out injured. With so much depth across the roles, being available for selection is the most important thing right now and then there is the nitty gritty for wickets/runs.
Jamieson is now part of a group of eight Blackcaps who have bowled in 10+ innings this year; Duffy (20), Bracewell (15) Sodhi (12), Neesham (12), Santner (12), Henry (10), Jamieson (10), Foulkes (10).
There are seven Blackcaps who have batted in at least 10 innings this year; Mitchell (15), Seifert (14), Chapman (14), Robinson (12), Bracewell (12), Ravindra (11), Conway (10).
Bracewell is the only bloke in both groups and that gives us 14 Blackcaps who have played 10+ T20Is this year. That's almost enough for a T20 World Cup squad right there and with 21 players used throughout the year, here are the other players who have played T20Is for Aotearoa in 2025: Mitch Hay (8), Allen (5), Sears (5), O'Rourke (4), Bevon Jacobs (4), Milne (3), Phillips (1).
Maintaining a 12-6 record while using 21 players is another indicator of Blackcaps quality. As the summer rolls along it will interesting to see who can play their way into the top-tier group of 14 and whether some of injured lads can be available for enough games to earn selection.
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Peace and love.