Black Caps’ Twenty20 rebuild
New tour, fresh start. Or that’s what New Zealand Cricket will desperately hope, for their big box office hit of the home summer.
A host of cricketers unscarred by the Australian test series debacle will replenish the Black Caps’ Twenty20 set-up as Kane Williamson and Gary Stead reach for the reset button for India.
It may be a different format, but the Eden Park lights will shine brightly on captain and coach for the series opener on January 24, after both felt the heat across the Tasman in the 3-0 test series mauling.
Home comforts and reinforcements will help, but extra scrutiny will remain as they build towards a return to Australia in October for the T20 World Cup, and seek to mend their heavily dented test reputation in Wellington and Christchurch next month.
With Trent Boult (broken hand) and Lockie Ferguson (calf strain) sidelined, and assuming there are no other post-tour niggles, Williamson, Ross Taylor, Colin de Grandhomme, Mitchell Santner and Tim Southee will be the only test in Sydney, when asked if Williamson would lead the T20 side amid questions over his captaincy workload.
Williamson’s return complicates a top-order logjam and, if they persist with de Grandhomme at four and Taylor at five, means one of Martin Guptill or Colin Munro has to miss out. That presents a significant headache, with Munro preferred as a bowling option, but Guptill having the edge on reputation and recent domestic form.
Alternatively they could take the less ideal option and shuffle Seifert down the order which means one fewer allrounder. Tom Bruce (Stags) remains next batsman in line.
Daryl Mitchell and Jimmy Neesham are the incumbent allrounders, although Neesham missed Thursday’s Firebirds match with a quadricep injury. With Santner and Ish Sodhi the spinners, it then gets interesting fitting an inexperienced pace attack around Southee, who captained the T20 side against Sri Lanka and England.
Blair Tickner made an impressive debut against India in the Hamilton series-clincher, then he and others were collared by Dawid Malan and Eoin Morgan in Napier in November. The angular Stags seamer was back to his hostile best in a 4-26 haul against Canterbury and needs more chances at international level.
With Ferguson out, Scott Kuggeleijn is the likely fast bowler, although his form fell away alarmingly against England, and in the early Super Smash rounds. Stags swing bowler Seth Rance is thereabouts and team-mate Ben Wheeler is a compelling left-arm option, nearly two years after his last T20 international and regaining his consistency after back surgery.
Otherwise, late test squad call-up Kyle Jamieson – a year
on from his miracle haul of 6-7 – and Firebirds veteran Hamish Bennett have claims. The latter continues to be outstanding for the competition leaders.
Stead said of the upcoming series: ‘‘We’ve got the T20 World Cup further down the track, I think it’s 22-23 matches away now and we’re still honing the way we want to play and who we see fitting into roles, and learning as much as we can before we hit that tournament.’’
A robust showing against India in five T20s and the three ODIs to follow will be expected by New Zealand fans, many unhappy with the manner of their defeats in Australia.
The two tests in Wellington (February 21) and Christchurch (February 29) against Virat Kohli’s world No 1 side will show how much the Black Caps learned from their Australian lesson, or if a rethink is needed.
There will be minimal changes to the test squad as Stead backs them to bounce back at home.
‘‘We have to go back and regroup, look in the mirror and say how can we keep getting better,’’ Stead said.
‘‘We need to learn from what’s happened here, but also trust the way we’ve played in New Zealand in the past will hopefully stand us in good stead.’’