2025 West Indies Tour Of New Zealand: A Monumental Blackcaps Win
New Zealand has started the 2025/27 World Test Championship in their usual top-four spot after Blackcaps depth flourished for a Test win in Wellington vs West Indies. All previous limo trips up Mt Victoria for Blackcaps bowlers and the wicket-keeper after a Test win at the Basin Reserve would be special, yet the situation facing this group of bowlers and the wicket-keeper makes it rather incredible for the lads involved.
New Zealand’s 10 Best Young Cricketers After The Summer Of 2023/24
New Zealand’s 10 Best Young Cricketers After The Summer Of 2024/25
Many look at the list of injured bowlers for Blackcaps as a negative or a bummer and it became clear that many people don't view Aotearoa's cricket talent in the same way that we do here at the Niche Cache. We have been tracking the growing depth of Blackcaps across the formats over the last few years and after seeing a bunch of younger Blackcaps contribute to wins or emerge as some of the best Blackcaps in a specific format like Tim Robinson, I was excited to see how Blackcaps would respond to such adversity.
The draw in Christchurch was a display of West Indies grit and mana. It was also a showcase of the Blackcaps culture though as they could have easily crumbled under the weight of losing Matt Henry and Nathan Smith as bowlers, as well as wicket-keeper Tom Blundell. Blackcaps adapted to the situation and battled their way to a draw that was a positive result for both teams.
While Blackcaps are missing a long list of seamers, the absences of Henry and Mitchell Santner are the most notable. These two are Aotearoa's best Test bowlers right now, having also been in nifty form across the other formats this season and most New Zealand cricket teams, let alone any other Test playing nation operating without their two best bowlers, would usually struggle to win Tests.
Then Blackcaps lost Blair Tickner to injury after he snared 4w @ 2rpo in the first innings. A bowling unit that was already working through a bunch of injuries before this series then lost two bowlers during the first Test vs West Indies and then another bowler went down mid-Test. The beauty of the Blackcaps is that they genuinely represent kiwis and they responded as most kiwis would in battling through, finding a way to shake off pesky shenanigans and get the job done.
Jacob Duffy is the key bloke in the bowling attack and he has emerged as an impressive leader. Duffy has started his Test career with 16w @ 17.4avg and while Blackcaps were missing their two best bowlers, Duffy has quietly emerged as an all-format wizard who should be viewed as Aotearoa's second best seamer right now.
10 bowlers have taken 10+ Test wickets since the start of 2024 with Duffy joining Henry and Santner as the only Blackcaps averaging below 20 in this group. For context, Tim Southee took 17w @ 59.1avg and Will O'Rourke has 39w @ 24.2avg in this period. Prior to this Test series though, Duffy was already chillin' as one of the best ODI and T20I bowlers ever for New Zealand.
Duffy has the lowest average for all Blackcaps Test bowlers with 10+ wickets. He has the fifth lowest ODI average (24.2) for kiwis with 30+ wickets and the second lowest average (17) for T20I kiwis with 30+ wickets. The lad from Lumsden isn't just making the most of his Test opportunities, he is doing similar legendary stuff as Henry across the formats.
Meanwhile, Zak Foulkes isn't far off Duffy in Test bowling with 16w @ 20.5avg in the same number of Tests as Duffy. Foulkes has an ODI bowling average of 16 and T20I bowling average of 26.2, while also showcasing his batting ability in each format.
Foulkes has 4w @ 48avg in the two Tests vs West Indies. That's nothing spectacular but Foulkes has rolled with the chaos of the Blackcaps bowling unit and with his role changing almost every innings of this Test series. This includes changes to his all-rounder role, not just his bowling role as he batted below Nathan Smith in the first Test before moving up one spot due to all the injuries.
Now Foulkes is the only batter who has two not-out innings for Blackcaps in this series with scores of 4, 11* and 23*. Foulkes has five not-outs in his last seven innings for Aotearoa and one of the notable differences between Blackcaps and West Indies is how their lower order added runs to their totals.
The last three Blackcaps batters scored 47 runs with Foulkes, Duffy and Rae scoring 10+ runs each. The last three West Indies batters combined for 5 runs in the first innings and 14 runs in the second innings. That's a total of 19 runs across the two innings which is more than half of the Blackcaps tail in their one innings.
These are minor details in which Blackcaps usually do better than their opponents and it's fabulous to see them maintain these cultural elements with so many new players involved. Blackcaps executed three run-outs in the second Test and West Indies had none for example, while Blackcaps were far superior in other things that are often overlooked such as fielding, rotating strike and body language.
Blackcaps didn't have to explore their full baggy of tricks in the second innings while missing a bowler, but even that possibility wasn't as scary as it seemed. NZC tweaked the schedule so that Plunket Shield overlapped with this Test series which meant that Rae and Phillips entered this Test having already bowled lots of longform overs.
Rae is the only seamer in Plunket Shield who has bowled 100 overs ahead of round four. This followed the Ford Trophy in which Rae bowled 48 overs in five games and he was only behind Angus McKenzie's 48.5 overs as the busiest Canterbury bowlers. Rae was ready for this moment after a decade of First-Class cricket and he was as ready as one could be for a marathon Test shift if required.
This is another example of the funky depth available to Blackcaps as Rae bowled often gave 137km/h a nudge on Test debut and he was steadily moving the ball both ways. Most Blackcaps seamers bowl at least 135km/h and Duffy's able to hit 140km/h, while others like Will O'Rourke use that mark as a minimum.
Like Duffy, Rae knows his game well and has been through most situations that cricket can offer. While we love the young talent coming through the Blackcaps pipeline, this pipeline is so effective because players of all ages develop and improve. Rae and Duffy have both had their 30th birthdays already yet they have plenty to offer Aotearoa cricket and folks should worry less about ages and more about how effective players are.
Phillips didn't play Ford Trophy but he churned out 88.2 overs in two Plunket Shield games as the leading spinner for Otago. Jarrod McKay is the only Otago player who has bowled more overs than Phillips and he's played all three games, while the only other Otago bowler with 80+ overs is Danru Ferns who has also played three games.
Phillips is also tied for Otago’s most wickets with 9 and here are his wicket tallies in three games since returning from injury: 2, 3, 2, 2, 1. After taking a wicket in the first innings, Phillips also loves bowling at the Basin Reserve where he has 7w @ 24.4avg. The list of kiwi spinners who average 30+ at Basin Reserve includes Daniel Vettori, John Bracewell, Dipak Patel, Michael Bracewell and Mark Craig.
While he didn't need to bowl in the second innings, Phillips was primed to play a role if the seamers needed a break. Rae bowled 30 overs in his debut Test with 18 in the first innings and 12 in the second innings. Based on what we know about Rae, he would have left all his cricketing juice out on that field to help Blackcaps win a Test as well.
Devon Conway's having a good year of Test batting and he hit 60 runs in the first innings followed by 28* @ 127sr in the run chase. Conway is the leading run-scorer for Blackcaps in Tests this year and while another local in Rachin Ravindra didn't go large on his home deck, these two are the only Blackcaps who have played in four Tests this year. Both lead the Blackcaps with three 50+ scores each.
Mitch Hay was the other batter who scored runs in the first innings with 61 runs on Test debut. This is yet another example of the Blackcaps depth as Aotearoa's next up Test wicket-keeper has a FC batting average of 48.9 and has started his ODI career with 41.5avg/104sr.
Like the others, Hay has been building towards this moment. He had scores of 71*, 19, 56 and 2* for NZ-A in South Africa and then had scores of 10, 59*, 42, 43* and 7 in Plunket Shield. No surprises then that a bloke almost averaging 50 in FC batting had an average of 74 in the NZ-A tour of South Africa and is sitting on 53.6avg in the Plunket Shield.
This throws up a funky theme of lads doing their job early in their careers for Blackcaps. Hay scored 61 runs on Test debut and Foulkes took 9 wickets in his first Test for example, while Duffy and Matthew Fisher also took wickets on Test debut. Smith took 7 wickets in his first three Tests as well as having three 20+ scores, O'Rourke started his Test career with 19 wickets in his first three Tests, Ben Sears took 5 wickets in his first Test and Robinson is one of our best T20I batters with 44.6avg/145sr in his second year of T20I cricket.
Rhys Mariu and Muhammad Abbas both had 50+ scores in their first Blackcaps duties (ODI series vs Pakistan earlier this year) as well. At this point there is no need for fear or doubt about Blackcaps depth and while these youngsters have flashed their freaky talents, older lads have made immediate impacts to winning cricket as well.
All of which frames the number of cricketers used by Blackcaps in each format this year. Somehow the smallest Test playing nation in the world has used 20 players across four Tests this year, while also using 20+ players in the other two formats. Blackcaps have winning records in each format as well...
Number of Blackcaps used in each format this year with the win/loss record
Test: 20 (3-0-1)
ODI: 24 (17-3)
T20I: 21 (12-6)
Most of which has happened without players from the previous era, many of whom are viewed as Blackcaps and worldwide legends. Kane Williamson didn't play in the 3-0 Test series sweep in India last year for example and Blackcaps made the Champions Trophy final without the Trent Boult/Tim Southee duo who played major roles in an excellent ODI group prior to 2024.
Nor do Blackcaps contracts matter and all the noise about casual contracts, or players turning down contracts has only resulted in Blackcaps holding steady. Performances are good, crowds still love Blackcaps, the next wave of talent is doing the job and players who don't want a contract are still eager to represent Aotearoa (because contracts do not determine game time).
Contracting situations and retirements have been the main Blackcaps headlines in recent years and yet this group continues to offer impressive performances. Instead of tripping over the list of players who aren't playing, worrying about the soul-less world of T20 franchise leagues or stressing about the future of the Blackcaps, let's celebrate who is playing and doing their job for the world's best cricketing nation.
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Peace and love.