The New Zealand A cricket team will tour Bangladesh for three one-dayers and two four-dayers with a squad that reflects Aotearoa's impressive depth. There are almost 20 kiwi cricketers busy playing County Championship or T20 cricket at the moment and then there is this NZ-A squad of 15 players who are either highly likely to add to their Blackcaps mahi or have the potential for a Blackcaps promotion in the next 12 months.

The NZ-A squad to tour Bangladesh…

Older Blackcaps: Ben Lister (29yrs), Dean Foxcroft (27yrs), Josh Clarkson (28yrs), Nick Kelly (31yrs)
Younger Blackcaps: Adithya Ashok (22yrs), Mitch Hay (24yrs), Zak Foulkes (22yrs), Muhammad Abbas (21yrs), Rhys Mariu (23yrs)
Older emerging: Joe Carter (32yrs), Jayden Lennox (30yrs), Dale Phillips (26yrs)
Younger emerging: Matt Boyle (22yrs), Kristian Clarke (24yrs), Curtis Heaphy (21yrs)

The most recent NZ-A activity was in 2023 when Aotearoa played a home/away series with Australia and won three of the four longform games. That was an important checkpoint in gauging the health of the Blackcaps pipeline and also individuals like Will O'Rourke who took 7w @ 28.4avg/3.1rpo during the two games in Australia. While NZ-A lost all three one-dayers in Australia, O'Rourke was sizzling in that format as well with 7w @ 10.4avg/3.8rpo.

Threads of Blackcaps development are clear when rolling back through NZ-A fixtures with a 2022 tour of India featuring two longform games and three one-dayers coming after two longform games vs West Indies A in Aotearoa late in 2020. Jacob Duffy was a steady presence in most NZ-A activities and along with the regular development zone of ODI/T20I appearances, Duffy laid foundations in these NZ-A games...

Jacob Duffy's recent mahi for NZ-A

Longform vs West Indies A: 6w @ 12.3avg/2.6rpo
Longform vs India A: 5w @ 50.8avg/3rpo
One-day vs India A: 4w @ 30.2avg/6.3rpo
Longform vs Australia A (in Australia): 7w @ 28.4avg/3.1rpo

Nick Kelly is another notable bloke in this mix because he was one of the best kiwi batters in both formats of the games in Australia. Kelly hit a 50+ score and averaged 32 in each format, which was followed by the best phase of his domestic career....

(Plunket Shield | Ford Trophy | Super Smash)

2023/24: 46.53avg/61.1sr | 28avg/77.3sr | 30.6avg/126.9sr
2024/25: 57.61avg/61.1sr | 40avg/101.5sr | 26.4avg/126.5sr

Kelly has overtaken batters who were ahead of him in the depth chart such as Tom Bruce, Sean Solia and Henry Cooper. All three were part of the 2023 NZ-A wave but had dips in their domestic batting mahi while Kelly kicked on and finished fourth then first for Plunket Shield runs in the last two seasons.

NZ-A lost four of their five games in the tour of India a few years ago which sets up an intriguing tour of conditions that will challenge the kiwis. That tour featured two centuries from Joe Carter in the longform games (347 runs @ 69.4avg/53.3sr) and the Northern Districts veteran has averaged 53.9 and 49.8 in his last two seasons of Plunket Shield.

Carter also hit a 50+ score in the one-dayers of the Indian tour which flowed into two List-A seasons averaging 52.7 and 43.7 before a dip this season. Another experienced trooper is Central Districts spinner Jayden Lennox and he has grown into an all-format 1st 11 player for CD after five seasons of Super Smash excellence.

Lennox averaged 18.2 in T20 bowling and he has averaged under 30 in all five seasons, while dipping below 20avg in three seasons. With Ajaz Patel leading the spin department for CD, Lennox had to wait for his opportunity in the other formats which led to him having his busiest Plunket Shield and Ford Trophy seasons last summer.

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This was Lennox's first LA season bowling 500+ deliveries and his second season averaging below 30. The most growth is evident in his First-Class bowling though where he churned out 1,000+ deliveries for the first time and averaged below 30 (24w @ 23.3avg) for his first season.

Along with young leggy Adithya Ashok, Dean Foxcroft has Blackcaps and NZ-A experience as one of the best batters who bowl spin in the domestic circuit. This gives the NZ-A team a leggy, lefty finger spinner and an offie for spinning conditions. Foxcroft will be eager to add to his six games for Aotearoa, Lennox could play his way into the ODI/T20I mix for Blackcaps as they develop depth in those formats and Ashok is the best young spinner in Aotearoa.

Ashok played in Australia for the longform games has already snuck in three games for Aotearoa before battling a few injuries and working his way back into the squad late last summer. Most kiwi spinners average around 25 in T20 bowling and above 30 in First-Class bowling. Here's how Ashok's FC bowling average compares to other spinners in Aotearoa...

Dean Foxcroft: 26.58
Peter Younghusband: 30.75
Ajaz Patel: 33.06
Ish Sodhi: 33.82
Adithya Ashok: 34.26
Jayden Lennox: 36.05
Mitchell Santner: 38.14
Michael Bracewell: 39.4

Dale Phillips is deserving of his selection as a top-order batter who may get an opportunity to roll the arm over, sitting behind Otago homie Foxcroft in this role. Phillips bowled in each of the last four Plunket Shield games this season and under new coach Ashley Noffke, Phillips bowled far more overs than his previous seasons in each format.

This wasn't difficult because Phillips only dabbled as a bowler in his first two seasons, then he had three FC seasons and four LA/T20 seasons without bowling. Phillips is fresh off his first Super Smash campaign scoring 100+ runs (210 runs @ 23.3avg/154.4sr), his first Ford Trophy campaign scoring 300+ runs (457 runs @ 45.7avg/86.3sr) and his fourth Plunket Shield season with 400+ runs which is part of a streak of five consecutive Plunket Shield seasons in which Phillips has hit a century.

Josh Clarkson has played 11 games for Aotearoa and was part of the tour of Sri Lanka late last year, then he hit two centuries in Plunket Shield over the summer for his second FC season averaging 50+. Clarkson will probably need to bowl a few overs as part of the seam department which also includes Zak Foulkes, Ben Lister and Kristian Clarke.

Foulkes has quickly established himself as one of, if not the best young T20 seamer from Aotearoa and this is on show in his 10 T20I appearances to his one ODI. Foulkes averages below 27 in all formats though and has scope to develop into an all-format Blackcap, so this tour will offer an enticing development checkpoint for the young Cantabrian.

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Lister returns to the mix after battling injuries and he is the next best lefty seamer in Aotearoa, who does things differently to most as he nips the ball away from right-handed batters. Lister is fairly similar to Foulkes in that he has played 12 T20Is and three ODIs, as well as offering excellent FC bowling with both averaging 26 in the longest format.

Clarke has been simmering away as one of the most consistent bowlers at ND, playing across all three formats each summer. Averaging 32.2 in FC bowling, Clarke drops down to 26.2 and 25 in LA and T20 bowling while also offering a sneaky batting ability; Foulkes and Clarke have three 50+ scores in FC batting in their first 25 games.

Eight young cricketers from Aotearoa are selected in this NZ-A squad and they have all appeared throughout in these pages over the last few summers. This is a fantastic representation of the Blackcaps pipeline and if you still don't know about Matt Boyle or Curtis Heaphy, then you need to tap in with the Niche Cache more often.

Boyle was the leading run-scorer in Super Smash last summer and Heaphy did the same in Ford Trophy, as 22 and 21-year-olds respectively. Boyle is a large lefty who has effortless power and he showed this summer that he is one of the best pure batters on the rise in Aotearoa with his first Plunket Shield century and his best FC batting season.

Heaphy is more crafty and has scores slower than most across the formats, yet his diet of runs is undeniable and he showed his skill in adapting to different roles in CD's Super Smash championship. Heaphy is likely to be the back up wicket-keeper behind Mitch Hay.

Here's how a 1st 11 team may look for Bangladesh conditions regardless of the format...

Rhys Mariu, Nick Kelly, Joe Carter, Dean Foxcroft, Muhammad Abbas, Mitch Hay (wk), Josh Clarkson, Zak Foulkes, Adithya Ashok, Ben Lister, Jayden Lennox
Dale Phillips, Curtis Heaphy, Matt Boyle, Kristian Clarke

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