New Zealand's tour of Bangladesh didn't produce ODI or T20I series wins but the Blackcaps won a game in both series and there were a bunch of notable performances within the almost 20 players used on tour. While it looked like the T20I series may fizzle out thanks to rain, the last game of the tour saw Aotearoa win and level up the series as the second game was washed out.

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Three batters had 50+ scores. Katene Clarke hit 51 runs @ 138sr and Dane Cleaver went slightly better with 51 runs @ 182sr, while Bevon Jacobs had the best knock of series with 62* @ 200sr in the winning run-chase. Clarke already has a half-century in his first four games of T20Is and veteran wicket-keeper Cleaver continues to offer value to Blackcaps with his second score over 50 runs in T20Is.

Jacobs hadn't quite showed what he is truly capable of prior to the third T20I for Aotearoa. The fact that Clarke had his first T20I halfie within three innings and Jaocbs took nine innings to reach that mark shows how Jacobs has been battling through the development process. The 24-year-old Jacobs did have a knock of 44* @ 147sr vs South Africa last year in a win and flashed his hitting ability in the kiwi summer vs South Africa with 36 runs @ 189sr.

Jacobs batted five in this series and that's where he has spent most of his T20I innings. He's also batted twice at six and twice at seven, with his strike-rate of 175 at five dropping to 87 at six and 124 at seven. There is a lazy perspective that Jacobs is just a T20 hitter but he is among the best emerging all format batters in New Zealand and that leads to a funky comparison to Clarke.

Clarke is a T20 hitter. While he will be eager to find a groove in the other formats for Northern Districts, specifically Ford Trophy, Clarke doesn't play much Plunket Shield for ND and has struggled to seal Ford Trophy selection by scoring runs in the games he does play. Meanwhile as his game time in those format dips, Clarke has exceled in T20 batting and this is a similar recipe to Finn Allen - who also struggled for Plunket Shield runs at Auckland.

Jacobs is far better across the formats than Clarke or Allen and he will play ODI cricket soon, as well as being a future Test batter for Blackcaps. Here's the First-Class and T20 records for these three batters...

Bevon Jacobs: 44.95avg/66sr (FC) | 35.61avg/148sr (T20)
Katene Clarke: 22.68avg/59sr | 29.2avg/143sr
Finn Allen: 20.96avg/55sr | 30.33avg/177sr

Two other batters of note are Tim Robinson and Josh Clarkson. Robinson finished the tour with 23 runs @ 164sr in the third T20I and has slid away from his 2025 mahi that almost saw him command T20 World Cup selection. Robinson has struggled in Asia early in his T20I career and this will be an important development zone for him as he will need to score runs overseas to keep building his Blackcaps foundations.

Robinson's T20I batting by year

2024: 17.2avg/124sr
2025: 44.6avg/144sr
2026: 15.6avg/129sr

Robinson has a T20I record of 30avg/140sr in New Zealand and that drops to 14.4avg/133sr in Asia. He did score 130 runs for NZ-A in a FC game of the Sri Lanka tour before going to Bangladesh so that's a positive sign and his two best kiwi summers of FC batting are the last two, so Robinson shouldn't be restricted to the T20 lens either.

Clarkson batted once and scored 27* @ 193sr in the T20Is vs Bangladesh. He had the highest strike-rate for Blackcaps in Bangladesh and along with Allen, Clarkson is the only Blackcaps batter who has scored 50+ runs with a strike-rate over 170 in T20Is this year with Clarkson on 76 runs @ 176.7sr.

Clarkson was also the leading wicket-taker for Blackcaps in this series with 4w @ 9.2avg/7.4rpo. He now has a T20I record of 25.1avg/132sr and 9.8avg/7.3rpo which is a nifty start to his career, while also being the flipside of his ODI mahi so far (7.4avg/67sr and 43.3avg/6.1rpo). Clarkson has been an excellent all-rounder across the formats for 10 years with Central Districts and those foundations could see him pounce on further opportunities for Aotearoa.

Funnily enough, Blackcaps won the only game that Ben Sears played and this reflects Sears' sneaky status as one of New Zealand's best T20I bowlers. Sears took 2w @ 6avg/5.1rpo and now has 10w @ 12.8avg/6.2rpo in T20Is this year, with lovely balance between his T20I bowling in Aotearoa and overseas...

Home: 20.2avg/8.2rpo
Away: 22.8avg/7.7rpo

Here's how Sears' T20I career average compares to other notable kiwis...

Lockie Ferguson: 17.82
Jacob Duffy: 20.25
Ben Sears: 21.12
Trent Boult: 21.43
Tim Southee: 22.38
Ish Sodhi: 23.01
Matt Henry: 23.07
Mitchell Santner: 23.85
Adam Milne: 24.64

Nathan Smith and Jayden Lennox made their T20I debuts in Bangladesh. This helped amp up the storyline of the inexperienced Blackcaps on tour but neither are young or inexperienced. Smith is in the 1st 11 mix for Tests and ODIs, while Lennox is a mature cricketer who has already contributed to ODI wins for New Zealand.

Despite T20 bowling being his best pocket, Lennox only played one game in Bangladesh with 1w @ 9.3rpo. Smith played in both games and took 3w @ 15.6avg/9.4rpo which made him the only Blackcap to take 3+ wickets in both series of the Bangladesh tour. He hasn't quite locked in 1st 11 selection for Blackcaps across the formats yet but Smith has the talent to do so and along with Zak Foulkes, they are the leading seam all-rounders on the rise.

Clarkson will be eager to climb his way to that tier, Kristian Clarke would have been in the squad but was injured and Muhammad Abbas' lefty seam bowling makes him a fascinating young cricketer to track. Abbas is more of a batter though and is part of an exciting group of emerging batters along with Jacobs, Clarke, Robinson, Curtis Heaphy, Matt Boyle and Rhys Mariu.

Dean Foxcroft showcased his talent in the ODI series and joins a growing group of spinny all-rounders. Mitchell Santner, Rachin Ravindra and Glenn Phillips lead the way there followed by mature lads in Michael Bracewell and Cole McConchie. That's plenty when considering the specialist spinners behind Ish Sodhi with Lennox joined by Adithya Ashok and Tim Pringle as younger spinners working towards more Blackcaps opportunities.

Cleaver got the wicket-keeping duties in Bangladesh where he offered experience and maturity to an emerging group. Mitch Hay and Max Chu were part of the NZ-A tour, with Hay having already gathered games for Blackcaps across the formats. All of which could apply pressure to Tom Latham who has handled most of the ODI wicket-keeping duties without piling up runs in the middle order.

There is a group of seven seamers who stand out thanks to what they have already done for Blackcaps and the skills/styles they have. Henry, Duffy, Sears, Smith, Foulkes, Kyle Jamieson and Will O'Rourke give Blackcaps plenty of options as seamers who have now played all three formats for Aotearoa. Blair Tickner is right behind them with his recent form, while Ben Lister and Matt Fisher both had limited game time in Bangladesh, plus the other seaming all-rounders.

Those who track Blackcaps cricket closely know that these tours happen every year and are crucial in building New Zealand's cricketing depth. Blackcaps have a hungry group of emerging cricketers who are desperate to play for Aotearoa and these tours, along with more NZ-A tour ensures that players have experience in overseas conditions. Now everything will be fine-tuned towards the elite Blackcaps group ahead of the tour of England and the strength of kiwi cricket is evident in how Blackcaps can move between different tours with different players while maintaining a high standard.

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