No Williamson, no Taylor, no worries – Guptill
The Black Caps will have neither Kane Williamson nor Ross Taylor in their one-day international lineup for the first time in more than six years on Saturday, when their series against Bangladesh gets under way in Dunedin.
And it’s on everyone to stand up in their absence – including likely debutants Devon Conway and Will Young – according to opener Martin Guptill.
The 34-year-old will be the team’s most experienced batsman with Taylor missing, but as he prepared to fly south yesterday he said he wasn’t feeling any extra responsibility.
‘‘It’s just on everybody really. The guys that have been chosen in their spots have earned their places, and I’m excited for them to get a go.’’
Williamson was ruled out of the series with an elbow issue last week, while Taylor was ruled out of the first match with a slight hamstring tear.
The last time the Black Caps went into a ODI with neitherman in their playing XI was in October 2014, when they hosted South Africa for a three-match series.
In the last five years, going back to the end of the 2015-16 summer, Taylor and Williamson have scored a third of the team’s ODI runs and more than half the team’s ODI centuries, so there are some big shoes to fill, but in Conway and Young they have a pair of players who appear ready to make the step up.
Conway has made every post a winner in Twenty20 international cricket since making his debut at the start of the summer, while Young has long been tipped for big things and impressed in a series of unofficial fixtures against Australia prior to the 2019 World Cup before a shoulder injury – and the Covid-19 pandemic – halted his progress.
While there will be plenty of interest in how the new duo get on, Guptill’s return to a venue where he blazed 97 off 50 balls in a T20 win over Australia last month is also hotly anticipated, though he’s firmly focused on the future instead of the past.
‘‘That doesn’t matter, does it? That was in the past,’’ he said.
‘‘We’ve just got to look forward to the next couple of days of training heading into Saturday.
‘‘The last one-dayer we played there, there were a few runs scored, so I’m looking forward to getting back down there.’’
Saturday’s ODI will be just the Black Caps’ fifth since the World Cup final in July 2019, and their first in the new World Cup Super League, which will determine the first seven qualifiers for the next edition of the game’s showpiece event in 2023.
Daryl Mitchell is also eyeing an ODI debut on Saturday, with regular all-rounder Colin de Grandhomme absent after requiring ankle surgery. If Mitchell is included, it will be intriguing to see which of Trent Boult, Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson or Tim Southee misses out.