Black Caps ignore IPL, do things their way
PLUS: Rugby's inevitable Middle East diversion; RA's financial calamity; Scotty's not-so-LOL win; Oz journalist has a fight; a dubious best sports movie list; and shameless self-promotion.
As suspected, there were no surprises in the Black Caps team for the World T20.
Yeah, it’s pretty boring and of all the genuine contenders arriving in the Caribbean and US in June, it’s hard to think of any who will arrive with a lower-octane batting lineup.
Squad for World T20: Kane Williamson (c), Finn Allen, Trent Boult, Michael Bracewell, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, Daryl Mitchell, Jimmy Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee.
New Zealand is the first of the major teams to name their squad, so it is not possible to do a compare and contrast, but the seven of Allen, Williamson, Conway, Ravindra, Mitchell, Phillips and Chapman will be fighting for six batting places.
Given there is no Tim Seifert to keep wickets, Devon Conway would appear to be a lock to start, as will be captain Williamson.
That’s two players presumably in your top three who strike at 129 and 123 in T20s1 respectively. Ravindra (131), Chapman (133) and Mitchell (135) are only a tick or two higher.
To give you some context, if a lineup made up entirely of Kane Williamsons batted to their career strike rate, New Zealand would end up with a T20 total of 147; if a team full of Daryl Mitchells did the same, it would be 162.
Going by the IPL trends, T20 is headed in the direction of stratospheric totals. The average first innings score in the 2024 IPL is 184. The run rate per over across both first and second innings is 9.67. There have been a staggering eight 250-plus totals.
Given what we’ve mentioned above, that would seem to put immense pressure on the hit-and-miss Allen (strike rate 169) and flighty Phillips (141), along with the late power of a James Neesham or Michael Bracewell, to post or chase down competitive totals.
Unless… New Zealand are banking on winning another way.
What they are also taking to the Caribbean in June is more than 630 T20I wickets.
Again, without seeing other squads, this might be premature, but I’d be surprised if there was another team that comes within cooee of that total.
This, I believe, is Gary Stead and Kane Williamson’s cunning plan. They are going to the West Indies to bowl and bore their way to a title.
It’s a bold, we’re half-in, half-out strategy. A bit like their uniform, where they’ve managed to turn a teal retro idea into something quite bland.
If that awkward half team photo is anything to go by, the players have the look of a kid who’s just been dressed for church by their mum and they’re hoping like hell none of their mates see them.
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