2026 New Zealand Women's Tour Of England: T20I Confusion
There are some clear holes in the White Ferns T20I team ahead of the T20 World Cup and they decided to embrace all of them for the series decider against England, which they lost. With a major tournament around the corner, this was more of a warm up series compared to the vibrant ODI group and team selections for the third game probably suggested that White Ferns weren't too fussed with that result.
The issue is that the team selections for the series decider are aligned with how the 1st 11 has been selected this year and now it seems like players who aren't contributing much to the T20I team will be graced with plenty of game time at the T20WC. White Ferns lost the first game with Suzie Bates and Rosemary Mair in the team, then won the second game without them and brought them back in to lose the third game.
Bates' awkward situation was amplified in the series against England. She started in her lower order role but only bowled one over in that game, then she was replaced by Nensi Patel who bowled all of her overs in the second game and appears to be the best option to fill the second spinner role.
Bates was an opening batter but dropped down the order because her production fell off in recent years, scoring less runs and struggling to keep up with the strike-rates required. This makes her lower order role tricky because other White Ferns are better equipped to score quickly down the order and Bates is barely being used as a spin option.
Then Bates was plugged into the opening batter role for the series decider, replacing Georgia Plimmer who had two ducks in the series. It's highly likely that Plimmer will be the opening batter alongside Izzy Gaze for the T20WC and yet Plimmer didn't get a chance to fix up her form. It's highly unlikely that Bates will open the batting at the T20WC and her knock of 3 runs @ 27sr in the third T20I captured how Bates is no longer a major factor in T20 batting.
Mair is averaging 100+ in two consecutive years of T20I bowling and has been selected as a 1st 11 seamer throughout this period. She didn't take a wicket against England and has been overtaken by Bree Illing who played all three games of this series, leading Aotearoa for wickets (4w @ 16.5avg/5.5rpo).
Mair played the first and third games of the series which were the two losses. Lea Tahuhu played the second game and she is probably having her workload managed before the T20WC, although the first game is two weeks away so Tahuhu would have plenty of recovery time if she played the third game vs England.
Managing Tahuhu's workload doesn't make much sense right now and selecting Mair as a 1st 11 seamer doesn't seem very logical either. Given that the only White Ferns bowlers who conceded more than 7rpo were seamers not named Illing (Tahuhu, Mair, Devine, J-Kerr), perhaps another spin option would have been useful and yet Flora Devonshire didn't play a game in this series.
Devonshire has a similar skillset to Patel, but as a lefty spinner. Both are among the best young batters in Aotearoa and given how Patel's settled into a White Ferns groove this year, Devonshire is more than capable of doing the same. At the very least Devonshire is more aggressive with the bat than Bates in the lower order spots and she would give White Ferns another spin option, when seamers were the least effective bowlers.
White Ferns struggled with the bat throughout this series but most of their batters have been in decent form leading into this series. All except Brooke Halliday who offered 19 runs @ 6.3avg/65sr against England and is on 13.1avg/93sr this year, which is matched by her T20I career mahi of 14avg/96sr.
Halliday could be a useful bowling option, if she bowled. She hasn’t bowled in T20Is this year and has bowled two overs since the start of 2025. While she is a good fielder, she isn't above and beyond the other White Ferns to demand selection for that reason. Halliday is a batter who doesn't score many T20I runs, doesn't score quickly and while it's nice that she is a lefty, scoring runs is the main job (Devonshire's also a lefty batter).
The cool thing about White Ferns right now is how the younger players are performing and the skills they offer to the Melie Kerr era. Izzy Sharp has started her T20I career with 32.7avg/125sr and her mahi of 35.3avg/131sr this year is tremendous compared to Halliday. This signals a hefty shift for White Ferns as Halliday cruised through T20I selection without much pressure on her position and now there are younger players in all roles who are simply better in this format.
Polly Inglis was also in the squad vs England and didn't play. While she is a wicket-keeper and is behind Izzy Gaze, Inglis is a quirky hitter who can play alongside Gaze while batting anywhere from six down. Halliday has spent most of her T20I career batting five and Maddy Green can easily slide up to that spot, then opening up space for Sharp/Inglis and the all-rounders.
White Ferns have Molly Penfold and Kayley Knight as seamers who should at the very least be competing with Mair but neither of them are in the squad. Along with Devonshire and Inglis being stuck outside the team vs England, White Ferns seem to have locked in a group of 13 who will play the majority of the T20WC and there aren't many signs of flexibility or adapting to form.
Other pockets of intrigue...
The Kerr sisters weren't too flash against England. A-Kerr scored 13 runs @ 4.3avg/62sr and took 2w @ 36avg/6.5rpo. J-Kerr took 1w @ 86avg/10.7rpo and joined Sophie Devine (4ov @ 10rpo) as the only White Ferns over 10rpo vs England.
Both have been good this year though. A-Kerr is the leading run-scorer (472 runs @ 52.4avg/158sr) and they are the only White Ferns with 10+ wickets this year, both averaging below 22.
Gaze and Plimmer were below 15avg/90sr vs England. After that series, Gaze is third for White Ferns runs this year (252 runs @ 31.5avg/130sr) and Plimmer's on 156 runs @ 19.5avg/131sr. Both have strike-rates over 130 this year which should be handy for their opening roles over the next month.
Sharp and Devine were the only batters over 100sr vs England. Green had a knock of 56* @ 117sr in the second game which was her first 50+ score of the year and she is the only batter with 100+ runs below 130sr for White Ferns this year. Green is in good form overall with recent scores of 85, 13, 141*, 1, 88, 37, 23, 56* and 14.
T20I stuff this year...
Highest batting strike-rates (10+ runs)
Melie Kerr: 158.3
Sophie Devine: 155.6
Georgia Plimmer: 131
Izzy Sharp: 130.8
Izzy Gaze: 130.5
Lowest batting strike-rates (10+ runs)
Brooke Halliday: 92.92
Rosemary Mair: 100
Jess Kerr: 102.17
Maddy Green: 111.11
Most economical bowlers (5+ overs | rpo)
Nensi Patel: 4.04
Bree Illing: 5.47
Kayley Knight: 5.85
Melie Kerr: 6.02
Most expensive bowlers (5+ overs | rpo)
Suzie Bates: 8.33
Sophie Devine: 7.7
Jess Kerr: 6.61
Rosmary Mair: 6.59
Support our cricket coverage by joining us on Patreon or donate through Buy Me A Coffee. A little goes a long way to fund our mahi. Smash an ad.
Peace and love.