Pace bowler happy to be a fill-in captain
Tim Southee has deflected any talk about sharing the Black Caps captaincy across formats.
The 29-year-old returns to lead New Zealand in their opening Twenty20 against West Indies at Nelson’s Saxton Oval today, after he was rested along with usual skipper Kane Williamson for the final two matches of the ODI series.
Tom Latham was handed the leadership role in their absence.
However, the experienced seamer said there is no reason why Williamson, who will sit out today’s match before returning for the final two T20s in Tauranga, should relinquish his captaincy in the shortest format of the game, even if there has been a clear desire to rest him when possible.
Other nations, such as Australia, England, South Africa and West Indies, have shared their captaincy across formats in recent years. But he does not believe New Zealand should follow suit.
‘‘I think Kane is doing a great job in all three formats at the moment. He’s obviously still relatively young in his captaincy career and he keeps going from strength to strength, so at the moment it’s just fill-in roles,’’ Southee said.
‘‘Tom obviously did a great job in the one-day series and I get a go in this game before Kane slips back in for the rest of the series.’’
Southee, who is just two wickets shy of a milestone 50 in the T20 format, said it will be both a privilege and honour to captain his country, even if it is just on a temporary basis.
‘‘It’s an honour firstly to represent your country and then obviously the chance to captain them in this game is something I’ll look forward to it. It’s something exciting and something different.’’
Tim Southee (captain 1st T20), Doug Bracewell, Tom Bruce, Lockie Ferguson, Martin Guptill, Matt Henry, Anaru Kitchen, Colin Munro, Glenn Phillips, Seth Rance, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Ross Taylor (1st T20), Kane Williamson (2nd and 3rd T20), Trent Boult (3rd T20).
Carlos Brathwaite (c), Samuel Badree, Sheldon Cotterell, Rayad Emrit, Andre Fletcher, Chris Gayle, Shimron Hetmyer, Shai Hope, Jason Mohammed, Ashley Nurse, Rovman Powell, Jerome Taylor, Chadwick Walton, Kesrick Williams.
❚ 1st T20, today, Saxton Oval, Nelson
❚ 2nd T20, January 1
❚ 3rd T20, January 3 (both at Bay Oval, Tauranga).
Although they have been swept aside in both the test and ODI series, Southee said the Black Caps will not be writing off West Indies in the T20 format, particularly as they are the reigning world champions.
‘‘Chris Gayle has been kept quiet so far on this tour of New Zealand but good players don’t stay quiet for too long so hopefully we can continue the way we’ve been bowling to him.
‘‘We know they’re a dangerous T20 side, they are the defending world champions, and they will be wanting to finish off this tour of New Zealand strongly.
‘‘A few different personnel have came in for them, so they’ll be excited about the change of format and looking forward to the T20 series.’’
Although he was happy to give his new team-mate a glowing reference, Southee was giving nothing away as to whether Otago allrounder Anaru Kitchen, a surprise selection at 33 years old, will make his international debut.
‘‘He’s obviously played a lot of domestic cricket and been around the circuit for a long time and deserves his chance at this level. He had a good start to the summer, he’s an attacking batsman so hopefully he can bring that form that he’s shown at domestic cricket to international cricket.’’
Today’s match is the first men’s T20 international to be played at Saxton Oval.
‘‘It’s a beautiful cricket ground. Usually the wicket’s a pretty true, pretty good wicket, so hopefully it’s a good game and I’m sure there will be plenty of runs scored.’’