New Zealand is up 2-1 in their ODI series vs West Indies as Jayden Lennox continues to excel in his first year of Blackcaps cricket. Lennox is the leading wicket-taker in this series and while he started his ODI career with wickets in six consecutive games, he didn't take more than 2 wickets in those games before blowing out with 5w and 4w in the two wins for Blackcaps vs Windies.

That means that Lennox has a wicket in each of his first ODIs and his impact for Blackcaps seems to have crept under the radar. This is his third ODI series and they have all been overseas. Lennox wasn't the leading wicket-taker vs India as another emerging player in Kristian Clarke took that honour, but Lennox was the most economical bowler in that series.

Then Lennox was tied with Will O'Rourke for the most wickets Blackcaps wickets in the ODI series vs Bangladesh. Now Lennox has 10w in three games vs West Indies and the next best for wickets in this series is Vitel Lawes on 6w. All of which means that Lennox is fourth for ODI wickets this year for all nations at the time of typing and he is one of two bowlers in the history of Blackcaps ODI cricket who have 10+ wickets with averages below 19

New Zealand ODI bowlers with 10+ wickets and averages below 19...

Dayle Hadlee: 20w @ 18.2avg
Jayden Lennox: 18w @ 18.22avg

Leading ODI wicket-takers in 2026

Nahid Rana: 27w @ 16avg
Taskin Ahmed: 20w @ 23.7avg
Sandeep Lamichhane: 19w @ 14.4avg
Jayden Lennox: 18w @ 18.22avg
Mustafizer Rahaman: 16w @ 18.37avg

For Blackcaps this year, Lennox has twice as many wickets as Kristian Clarke who is second. Lennox has played in eight of the nine ODIs for Aotearoa this year and he has been the busiest bowler by a significant margin. Lennox has bowled 77 overs this year and Michael Bracewell's 42 overs is second.

This sums up where Blackcaps are poised mid-way through 2026. The cricketing world finally caught on to the depth brewing in kiwi cricket during the recent Test series win and yet spin bowling wasn't much a factor on the Euro tour. Mitchell Santner's mahi in the third Test made him the most active Test spinner for Blackcaps this year (24.2ov), Rachin Ravindra and Dean Foxcroft bowled a few overs as well, while Glenn Phillips didn't bowl in his two Tests.

In T20Is, Lennox has only played one game and as that is his best format in his career, that is likely to change. Blackcaps have used six other spinners in T20Is so far during 2026; Santner (53ov), Ish Sodhi (26ov), Cole McConchie (24ov), Ravindra (19ov), Phillips (17ov) and Foxcroft (2ov). Like Lennox, McConchie snuck into a key role for Blackcaps during the T20 World Cup in which they made the final.

That's eight spinners who have bowled for Aotearoa across the formats this year. Add in veteran Ajaz Patel, young leggy Adithya Ashok who has already played for Blackcaps, Tim Pringle who is the best youngster on the rise and others like Rohit Kumar, Ben Lockrose, Zac Cumming, Raunaq Kapur who could all grow into Blackcaps opportunities in the coming seasons.

Spinny all-rounders? Plenty of them too with Matt Boyle adding overs in England to his busiest bowling season last summer, along with other notable talents like Jesse Tashkoff and Snehith Reddy. Given the clear theme of players like Lennox maturing into their best mahi, there is no need to rush anyone as spinners fine-tune their craft and command selection by piling up wickets.

Spin has dominated the Guyana phase of this series with Bracewell (5w @ 23avg/4.8rpo) and Santner (4w @ 19avg/3rpo) the next best wicket-takers for Blackcaps. Bracewell and Foxcroft both had not-out innings in winning run chases alongside Tom Latham, while Santner's all-round contributions are part of a career-best zone for him that coincides with him taking over as captain.

Bowling glow up

Before 2025: 37.4avg/4.8rpo
2025 onwards: 25.8avg/4.3rpo

Last two years of ODI cricket

2025: 26.2avg/115sr | 26.8avg/4.5rpo
2026: 21avg/123sr | 19.5avg/3rpo

Santner as captain in ODIs

Captain: 22.3avg/111sr | 29.8avg/4.4rpo
Not captain: 27.6avg/91sr | 36.4avg/4.8rpo

Santner's batting strike-rate of 116.08 in ODIs since the start of 2025 is the highest for Blackcaps with 200+ runs and second highest for 100+ runs. In the same period, Santner is second for Blackcaps wickets and he is second for the most economical bowlers in this phase behind Lennox.

Scores in the series vs West Indies

Will Young: 49, 28, 23
Henry Nicholls: 27, 17, 24
Mark Chapman: 27, 0, 7
Daryl Mitchell: 65, 28, 28
Tom Latham: 25, 37*, 31*
Dean Foxcroft: 0, 22*
Michael Bracewell: 29, 24*

Mitchel has the only 50+ burger and Young was a run away from hitting the mystical mark. There aren't any dominant performances for Blackcaps so far and that reflects the challenge for batters in this series, yet most Blackcaps have built solid foundations and contributed to winning cricket.

Young, Mitchell, Latham and Bracewell have 20+ scores in every innings so far. Latham's not-out innings have steered Blackcaps towards their wins and while he doesn't have a 50+ score in ODIs this year (first time since 2014), Latham's been the most important batter for Blackcaps.

In tricky batting conditions, Latham has absorbed pressure with a lower strike-rate (64) than usual to ensure victories and these knocks have allowed Bracewell (24* @ 92sr) then Foxcroft (22* @ 78sr) to work through challenges and settle in. Foxcroft is another sneaky Blackcap at the moment with 171 runs @ 43avg/87sr in his five ODIs this year as part of a lovely wave of Blackcaps cricket for him.

Foxcroft's recent scores for Blackcaps: 59, 15, 75, 3, 15*, 98, 0, 22*.

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Peace and love.