The Blackcaps T20 squad named to play Sri Lanka in three games starting this Saturday features Aotearoa's best young talent and it's the perfect opportunity to roll out a fresh T20 group after New Zealand struggled to hit their potential in T20Is this year.
The Blackcaps year of Test cricket has wrapped up and they finish 2024 with a 6-6 record, which holds steady at 7-7 in the World Test Championship where New Zealand is currently fourth.
No one should be expecting Aotearoa's White Ferns to win the ODI series vs Australia in Wellington but they have the opportunity to shake up women's cricket once again and move into a fresh phase full of confidence.
Otago is 6-0 after the first stanza of HBJ Shield after two wins over Northern Districts and there is a bonus Young All Stars team named featuring the best emerging players before entering Super Smash.
Canterbury is first on the Plunket Shield ladder and second on the Ford Trophy ladder with Aotearoa's strongest concentration of young talent leading their mahi.
Rhys Mariu is piling up runs and he isn’t alone as a youngster shining in Plunket Shield as Zak Foulkes, Mitch Hay, Matt Fisher, Will Clark, Luke Georgeson, Max Chu and Adithya Ashok all impressed in the last round.
An English dose of reality has smoked Blackcaps and it serves as a word of warning for New Zealand Cricket with White Ferns hosting Australia for an ODI series later this month.
Defending Hallyburton Johnstone Shield champions Otago have maintained their perch at the top of the ladder this season after a 4-0 start.
New Zealand's loss to England in Christchurch saw them slide back into their status-quo and perhaps some expectations need adjusting given how different the tour of India was compared to nearly everything else Blackcaps have done in recent years.
Rhys Mariu hit another century as Canterbury captain, while Brett Hampton and Ben Pomare blasted lots of sixes for Northern Districts.
Bella James is quietly stacking up big runs for an Otago team that is undefeated in HBJ Shield.
A decent chunk of domestic cricket has been played with the first stanza of Ford Trophy followed by a couple Plunket Shield games and that provides a nice spot to check in with the most impressive emerging cricketers in New Zealand.
New Zealand starts the kiwi summer of cricket with the first Test against England at Hagley Oval in Christchurch on Thursday.
Otago are the only HBJ Shield team with two wins and leggy Ocean Bartlett leads all bowlers for wickets.
Northern Districts is the only Plunket Shield team with two wins and 22-year-old Rhys Mariu is the only bloke with a double century.
New Zealand's Blackcaps are in Sri Lanka were they drew the T20I series 1-1 and lost the first of three ODIs.
Cricket in New Zealand has always been the headline act of an Aotearoa summer and it is one of the many sports in which kiwis out-perform nations with far more resources.
The first stanza of Ford Trophy has finished with Auckland at the top of the ladder, one point ahead of Canterbury.
The smallest Test playing nation in the world won the first World Test Championship and now we can now add a 3-0 series sweep in India to New Zealand's glorious achievements in Test cricket since the pandemic started this decade.
New Zealand's White Ferns had to quickly switch into ODI mode after their T20 World Cup success and went down 1-2 to India in the Women's Championship.