Young steps down at Stags

At just 25, Will Young has captained the Central Stags in 79 matches and racked up nearly 4000 first-class runs.

But to make that next step to the Black Caps, the batsman once likened to a young Ross Taylor wanted out of the captaincy after guiding the Stags to the Plunket Shield title and defeats in both white ball finals last season.

Young approached Stags coach Heinrich Malan and will now be a batsman only, with opener Greg Hay (Plunket Shield) and all-rounder Doug Bracewell (Ford Trophy) confirmed as the side’s new skippers.

Malan departs for the United Arab Emirates on Saturday as New Zealand A coach, a squad which includes Young, and hopes the shift can take his former skipper to the next level.

‘‘Youngy came to us at the back end of last season and indicated he felt it was a good time for him to step aside. The main reason was, he wants to give himself the best opportunity to become an international cricketer and focusing solely on his batting is hopefully going to get him there,’’ Malan said.

Since his first-class debut in March, 2012, Taranaki’s Young looked an international batsman in waiting but hasn’t yet bashed through the selection door as Stags team-mates George Worker and Tom Bruce got their Black Caps callups in white ball cricket.

With world-class duo Kane Williamson and Taylor cemented in the three and four spots for New Zealand, there remains no standout successor or middle order replacement should injuries strike.

In first-class cricket Young averaged 53.47 in 2014-15 and that figure dropped to 47 in 2015-16, 42.21 in 2016-17 and 42.87 last season when he was the Plunket Shield’s fourth-highest runscorer with 686.

‘‘I took on the captaincy at 22 and I had given captaincy my all Will Young led the Stags to both the white ball finals and the Plunket Shield title, inset, last season but is stepping down as captain.

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since then,’’ Young said.

‘‘It’s been an absolute pleasure to lead this group of men over the past 21⁄2 seasons, and I’m not ruling out accepting the role again in the future. But right now, new leadership for the group will be a good thing to keep things fresh, and to keep bringing new ideas to the table.’’

At 34, Hay took the long road to the Stags captaincy after his most prolific season yet in 2017-18: 786 runs at a tick over 60 in their shield victory.

Hay will lead them out in home town Nelson against Canterbury in their shield opener next Wednesday.

With test opener Jeet Raval amid a lean patch at home and in England, he’ll be under the microscope in the UAE and Hay still has international aspirations.

‘‘It’s probably the other way for Haysy, it’s giving him that extra responsibility around looking after the team which hopefully builds the confidence in him to continually score those runs for us,’’ Malan said.

‘‘That’s a key theme around what we’re trying to create at the Stags, getting people into a position where they perform to play international cricket. That’s one of our mantras and Haysy is no different – he wants to test himself against the best.’’

Bracewell returned to the Black Caps last season but was left out of the NZ A and Black Caps squads to the UAE, and will take the 50-over reins when that competition starts on October 24.

‘‘We feel with a lot of people away we can share that responsibility and grow our leadership group,’’ said Malan, who hands over the coaching to former Stags and Worcestershire opener Ben Smith while NZ A are away.