India calls as Southee moves past test snub
Tim Southee wasn’t selected the last time the Black Caps played but despite coming out on the wrong side of a personnel decision, he isn’t taking it personally.
The veteran seamer is expected to lead the attack when the five-match Twenty20 series against India starts tomorrow night in Auckland, having been afforded a bit more rest than some of his team-mates.
After playing in the first four tests of the summer – two against England at home and two against Australia across the Tasman – he was dropped for the New Year’s test in Sydney, with Matt Henry elevated in his place.
Coach Gary Stead said at the time that it was felt Henry would offer more pace than Southee, especially given the incumbent’s heavy workload, after England captain Michael Vaughan labelled it a ‘‘staggering’’ decision.
Southee and Stead were spotted having a chat before play on the second day of the test, which the Black Caps lost to slump to a 3-0 series defeat, and after he trained yesterday, the bowler was eager to put the snub behind him.
‘‘I don’t think you can take it personally – they make the decisions based on what they think is best for the team,’’ he said. ‘‘You’re going to agree to disagree and that’s just the nature of sport.
‘‘You’re gutted every time you’re left out. It’s an absolute dream to play for New Zealand and every time you do miss out it hurts, but you’ve got to respect the decisions and try to help out and give back to the team, even when you’re not playing.’’
From the start of the first test against England to the end of the Boxing Day test against Australia, Southee bowled 189 overs in the space of five weeks – a workload on an overs-per-day basis he’d previously exceeded only during a couple of white-ball series, where he was bowling at most 10 at a time, so there was some logic behind the decision.
Having left that disagreement behind in Sydney, Southee’s focus is now squarely on the T20 series that starts tomorrow and he said it was nice to be playing a different format.
‘‘We had a big chunk of test cricket and the guys that were in Australia are reasonably experienced guys . . . they’ve had tough tours before and they’ve bounced back and the reason why they’ve played for a long period of time is they’ve been able to get through those ups and downs.
‘‘It’s about making that adjustment. What’s gone is gone and it was very disappointing, the guys would have learnt from it, and now we’ve got to look forward to the Indian series.’’
Southee was one of four players to play in all 12 of the Black Caps’ Twenty20 matches last year and captained the side in nine of them, with Kane Williamson rested for one at the start of the year, then injured when they visited Sri Lanka and hosted England.
The regular skipper is set to make his first international appearance in the game’s shortest format since last summer tomorrow, and Southee will offer him whatever support he needs.
‘‘I enjoy thinking about the game and it makes you think outside of what you’re doing,’’ he said of his experience as captain.
‘‘I also try to help Kane out as well – it’s nice to have those senior guys [helping you] and Ross [Taylor] was good having captained the side in the past.
‘‘It’s a different challenge when you captain and it’s something I enjoyed, but Kane’s doing a great job, so I’ll just try to help him out.’’