Breaking Down New Zealand's T20I Squad To Play Australia
After winning every game of the T20 tri-series in Zimbabwe, New Zealand returns to Aotearoa to host Australia for three T20Is with a squad that continues to integrate the best emerging cricketers into the regular flow for Blackcaps. New Zealand has gone 12-3 in T20Is since the last T20 World Cup and none of that includes Kane Williamson, who continues to appear in newsy headlines despite not being relevant to Blackcaps T20 cricket.
Williamson may command selection for the T20 World Cup by piling up swift runs in whatever games he does play. The reality though is that Williamson has played the same number of T20Is as Trent Boult since the start of 2023, which leads to a combination of Williamson clearly not wanting to play and Blackcaps not needing him to play.
Remember that Williamson (and Boult) played at the T20 World Cup last year when Blackcaps lost their first two games vs Afghanistan and West Indies, to be knocked out at the group stage. New Zealand had made three consecutive T20WC semi-finals prior to that and with five consecutive ODI World Cup semi-finals (with a few finals appearances in both formats), this was the first World Cup in which Aotearoa didn't make the semi-finals since the 2014 T20WC.
In the T20WC last year, Williamson scored 9 runs @ 69sr vs Afghanistan, 1 run @ 50sr vs West Indies and saved his best mahi of the tournament for last with 18* @ 106sr vs Papua New Guinea. Williamson has operated below 125sr in his last three years of T20I batting and when factoring in how other Blackcaps T20 batters are performing, Williamson is simply not a top-tier T20 player for Aotearoa.
Williamson is not good enough at T20I batting right now to pick and choose his involvements without consequences. This is especially funky because Blackcaps are a good T20 team without Williamson and other batters have already snapped up opportunities ahead of him, while there is also a bunch of younger batters who are on the cusp of regular T20I selection for New Zealand.
The most notable development in Blackcaps T20 batting has been Rachin Ravindra blossoming in the shortest format. All three of Ravindra's 50+ scores in T20Is have come since the start of 2024 and he had two of them earlier this year. Ravindra has a T20I record of 31.5avg/150sr since the last T20WC and after averaging below 20 in both T20I and T20 batting to start his career, he is now above that mark.
This is boosted by Ravindra having ODI and List-A strike-rates over 100, which is extra crazy because he has averages over 60 and strike-rates over 100 in the ODI World Cup as well as the Champions Trophy. His mahi in T20 leagues also suggests that Ravindra can continue his T20 development as he has strike-rates over 140 in the IPL, MLC and Hundred.
Ravindra will be joined by Tim Seifert, Devon Conway, Mark Chapman and Daryl Mitchell in the core batting group to play against Australia. All five have batting strike-rates over 130 since the last T20WC and Chapman is the only one averaging below 30, but he has an excellent strike-rate of 151.5 in T20Is this year.
Tim Robinson and Bevon Jacobs are the younger batters in the squad. They shared a glorious partnership in the T20 tri-series and both have been grinding through valuable development routes this year. Robinson has spent most of the winter in England playing all three formats for Northamptonshire where he will benefit from the hectic schedule, while Jacobs had to grind through a dip in form on the T20 league circuit and then he was in South Africa with NZ-A.
Robinson has snuck in eight T20Is since the last T20WC with a solid record of 32.5avg/128sr and has played 12 T20Is in his career with a similar record of 27.8avg/130sr. This puts Robinson ahead of Jacobs in the batting depth chart and while Jacobs has four ducks in his last eight innings, including three in a row for NZ-A, his potential is obvious and he should be better off for this period of development.
Robinson and Jacobs can bat anywhere below three in the batting line up. This makes them useful squad members and it could also bump Ravindra into the opening bracket alongside Seifert and Conway. Ravindra has opened the batting in nine games and batted second in eight innings, which is the same number of innings for batting third but with very different results...
Batting second: 15.7avg/125sr
Batting third: 32.5avg/152sr
The best T20I opening combo seems like Seifert and Finn Allen, but Allen is out injured at the moment. Seifert will probably open alongside Conway for most of the series vs Australia and the best batting unit then has Ravindra, Mitchell and Chapman in the top-five. Robinson or Jacobs could get a crack in the top-five but they will probably be outside the 1st 11 to start the series, perhaps Jacobs gets a chance batting six.
Seifert will be the leading wicket-keeper and he is on track to keep this role for the upcoming summer, with Conway offering casual cover.
Michael Bracewell and Ish Sodhi are the main spinners in the squad, with a splash of Ravindra's lefty spin available. Bracewell has been fabulous with the bat since the last T20WC (35.8avg/154sr) and mediocre with the ball (39avg/8.8r), as well as being tied for the most T20Is played for Aotearoa in this period with Chapman (14).
Sodhi is the best Blackcaps spinner in T20Is since the last T20WC and one of four Blackcaps who have taken 10+ wickets in this period. Given that Bracewell and Santner (29.5avg) are hovering around 30avg or well above, Sodhi's record of 17.3avg/7.3rpo in nine games is excellent and he has a handy record in T20Is vs Australia of 22.5avg/8.2rpo. 2025 is Sodhi's best year of T20I bowling...
2025: 7inns, 12w @ 13.7avg/7.3rpo/11.1sr
2016: 6inns, 11w @ 13.9avg/6.4rpo/12.9sr
2017: 6inns, 11w @ 14.6avg/7.3rpo/12sr
2021: 16inns, 27w @ 16.9avg/8.1rpo/12.4sr
Matt Henry is one of the best seamers in the world across all formats and Jacob Duffy has flourished as one of the best T20 bowlers in the world. Both are averaging below 15 in T20Is since the last T20WC, with Duffy cruising along as the only Blackcaps bowler to take 20+ wickets in this period (27w @ 11.4avg/6.3rpo).
Ben Sears and Kyle Jamieson slide back into the T20 mixer for New Zealand. Sears has only played three games since the last T20WC and Jamieson has played two, which isn't enough to dive deeper into but they do offer a funky comparison in their T20I careers.
Ben Sears (23.7avg/8.3rpo)
2021: 2inns, 32avg/8rpo
2022: 4inns, 20.8avg/6.9rpo
2023: 2inns, 21.3avg/8rpo
2024: 7inns, 22.4avg/8.9rpo
2025: 3inns, 33avg/9rpo
Kyle Jamieson (36.4avg/9rpo)
2020: 4inns, 35.3avg/7.7rpo
2021: 4inns, 175avg/11.6rpo
2023: 5inns, 21.8avg/8.3rpo
2025: 2inns, 20.6avg/7.7rpo
Sears has been steady through his five years of T20I bowling and Jamieson has made clear improvements between his first two years of T20I bowling and his last two years. Given that two top-tier T20 seamers in Lockie Ferguson and Adam Milne are out injured, along with Will O'Rourke who is yet to dominate T20Is for Aotearoa, Sears and Jamieson deserve their opportunity to earn consistent selection.
Zak Foulkes stays in the mix as well and he is one of four Blackcaps who have bowled in at least 10 innings since the last T20WC. Foulkes is second (38ov) behind Duffy (48.4ov) for the most T20I overs bowled in this period and while he doesn't have a bonkers average like Duffy's 11.4avg, Foulkes continues to impress with 14w @ 20.9avg/7.7rpo in the last 12 months.
Foulkes has also chipped in with 59 runs @ 147.5sr and he is one of five Blackcaps batters who have scored 50+ runs with strike-rates over 140 since the last T20WC. Like the other emerging Blackcaps, Foulkes has been on the development journey this year with an NZ-A tour to Bangladesh followed by a stint with Durham in England, the T20 tri-series and Test series in Zimbabwe, then a NZ-A tour in South Africa.
Many wouldn't view Foulkes as a 1st 11 T20I cricketer for Aotearoa, then again many folks don't view Duffy as an elite T20 bowler or Ravindra as the best T20I batter for Blackcaps right now. This sums up the Blackcaps pipeline though and given that 10 of the 12 Blackcaps who have played at least seven T20Is since the last T20WC are in the squad to play Australia, it is best to focus on who is playing rather that worrying about those not selected.
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