There won't be any drastic changes to the New Zealand Test cricket team's batting line up any time soon but there is a cluster of emerging batters working towards Test debuts. This is aligned with the incredible depth in the Blackcaps pipeline which flows through the other roles with 10 seam bowlers contributing to the Test team over the last year, spinners of all styles scattered across Blackcaps levels and skillful all-rounders of all varieties.

Part of the focus on emerging batters includes wicket-keepers as well. Mitch Hay scored runs on Test debut and while he slipped behind Dane Cleaver in recent ODI/T20I cricket for Blackcaps, Hay was joined by Max Chu in the NZ-A system this year. Hay has already played all three formats for Aotearoa and Chu has delivered his best phase of domestic cricket across the formats in recent seasons.

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There are others like Ben Pomare who have potential to represent Aotearoa. Hay and Chu will be competing for Blackcaps duties over the next five years, combining strong glove skills with obvious batting ability. Hay's a right-hander with a First-Class batting average of 45 and Chu is a lefty who has settled into a leadership role for Otago, both in terms of his run-scoring and mana in the deep south.

Seaming all-rounders like Kristian Clarke, Simon Keene, Jock McKenzie and Luke Georgeson have all shown their batting ability while also bagging plenty of wickets. Thomas O'Connor was brewing as the most exciting seamer at the end of last season and he scored impressie runs down the order for Otago as another example of the talent deeper in the pipeline.

Following on in the Glenn Phillips zone is Dean Foxcroft who has added a freshness to the spinny all-rounder depth after Cole McConchie flourished for Blackcaps earlier this year. Tim Pringle's mainly a spinner right now but his batting continues to improve along with Adithya Ashok's development.

Dale Phillips has the same bat/spin/wicket-keeper combo as his older brother and he will soon be a factor for Blackcaps. 19-year-old Snehith Reddy has already found a groove as a spinny all-rounder for Northern Districts while others like Jesse Tashkoff, Ben Lockrose and Raunaq Kapur could also push for higher honours in the coming years.

Aside from almost naming a team of players who have shown batting potential, there is a group of six batters who form the next wave of top-order batting depth. At this juncture it is worth highlighting that Will Young and Nick Kelly are the best candidates to plug holes in the Test batting unit. Their maturity and experience is best suited to the Blackcaps schedule, with Kelly's FC consistency and recent mahi in County Championship making him deserving of that spot behind Young.

Bevon Jacobs, Tim Robinson, Muhammad Abbas and Rhys Mariu have already played for Aotearoa. All four have already notched a 50+ score for Blackcaps and all but Mariu were involved in the Blackcaps tour of Bangladesh a few months ago.

The other notable emerging batters are Curtis Heaphy and Matthew Boyle. Heaphy being the only player in this group with 40+ averages in FC and List-A cricket. Boyle has added consistent production across various NZ-A tours to his growth in domestic cricket where he has gone from a fabulous T20 batter to scoring runs in all three formats for Canterbury.

These six batters slot nicely into different roles in the top-order. The best opening candidate is Heaphy and he is also a handy wicket-keeper who can cover that role in similar style to Tom Latham. Another pure opener is Otago's Jacob Cumming who has improved with each domestic season and is gathering multi-format experience.

Mariu can also be an opener, but he seems best equipped to deal with the number three batting position and he has the highest FC average of these six batters (52.6). Mariu had a knock of 58 runs in his second ODI and while he is best suited to the longer formats, there should be more growth in his batting as he settles into a regular role in Canterbury's T20 team.

Many view Jacobs as a T20 specialist and yet he is a key member of Auckland's Plunket Shield batting unit. Jacobs (44.95) has a slightly higher FC batting average than Heaphy (44.38) which puts him second behind Mariu and he deserves to be viewed as a future Test batter for Aotearoa, not just a T20 hitter.

Boyle joins Jacobs as batters who are best suited to the number four or five positions. Boyle just had his best FC season with Canterbury and has improved with each of his four seasons in the longest format, while matching that in the shorter formats. There are also positive signs for Boyle's spin bowling as his workloads have increase with each summer and he has bowled in NZ-A tours of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Abbas and Robinson will be best deployed in the middle order. Abbas is also a lefty seamer who has bowled in three of his six ODIs and while he lacks the peak averages of others in this group, Abbas' talent and skillset is undeniable. That's why Abbas has played the most ODIs of these six blokes and he had a 50+ score in the same series as Mariu early in 2025.

Robinson has already stacked up 31 T20I games for Aotearoa. He had a score of 130 runs for NZ-A in the longform series in Sri Lanka and his best season of FC batting last summer though, hitting two centuries for the first time in his five summers of FC cricket. This gives Robinson at least two centuries in each format and he is the only batter in this group who has a century in all three formats, let alone two.

Robinson could earn selection higher up the order but his natural flow feels better suited to five or six in the line up. He has the same T20 perception as Jacobs but Robinson has four FC centuries at 24-years-old and has consistently earned selection in Plunket Shield for Wellington when available.

It's tricky to build how a batting unit could look with these six players because one of the wicket-keepers will probably slot into the number six position. Add in the abundance of all-rounders, which includes Abbas and perhaps Boyle in this group of six batters, for a similar style of team selection that Blackcaps currently operate.

Blackcaps will give Young and perhaps Kelly opportunities in the short-term if space opens up. Don't let that fool you into thinking that Blackcaps lack emerging talent in this department though. In theory there are Test series against weaker teams that could provide opportunities but the scarcity of Blackcaps Test cricket and World Test Championship context means that Blackcaps should be selecting their best available batting unit at all times.

This is all evident in how Blackcaps select their teams across the formats. Players start their Blackcaps journeys in the shorter formats and no one should be stressed about player availability for ODI/T20I series because these pockets are where new Blackcaps are given opportunities.

Add in NZ-A tours every year and all six of these batters have played FC cricket overseas, adding to their development. Mariu offers a nice example of how important the development journey is because he has dominated Plunket Shield for four seasons, but didn't register a 50+ score in the FC tours of Bangladesh or Sri Lanka.

Many seem to be thirsty for this process to be rushed. The emerging batters need time and space to figure out how their longform batting can be effective around the world and the older blokes keep scoring runs. None of these six batters did what Henry Nicholls was doing in Plunket Shield and Ford Trophy last summer, so all emerging batters need to score more runs to fight for selection.

That's for the betterment of Blackcaps and kiwi cricket. Don't fall for the old ways of Aotearoa cricket where a lack of talent drove angst about the ages of players and the thirst to rush in anyone who showed promise. We now have an abundance of talent in all roles and it's going to be fun to see which emerging batter makes the strongest case for selection.

Curtis Heaphy - 22yrs

FC: 44.3avg/41sr
LA: 53.8avg/68sr
T20: 25.8avg/109sr

Rhys Mariu - 24yrs

ODI: 38avg/88sr
FC: 52.6avg/66sr
LA: 31.5avg/83sr
T20: 17.1avg/136sr

Bevon Jacobs - 24yrs

T20I: 26.1avg/143sr
FC: 44.9avg/66sr
LA: 27.4avg/97sr
T20: 35.6avg/148sr

Matthew Boyle - 23yrs

FC: 35.3avg/66sr
LA: 28avg/91sr
T20: 27.8avg/150sr

Muhammad Abbas - 22yrs

ODI: 27avg/80sr
FC: 31.62avg/53sr
LA: 32.4avg/79sr
T20: 24.5avg/132sr

Tim Robinson - 24yrs

ODI: 16avg/102sr
T20I: 26.6avg/137sr
FC: 32.8avg/63sr
LA: 26.8avg/88sr
T20: 25.8avg/139sr

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