Lack of options hurts Black Caps

The bell may have tolled for veteran Martin Guptill – but it’s not ringing loudly for any newcomers.

Despite head coach Gary Stead not closing the lid on Guptill’s Black Caps coffin yesterday, it’s difficult to imagine the 36-year-old opener coming back from the dead to play a fifth ODI World Cup next year.

After not playing a game at the just-completed T20 World Cup in Australia, Guptill wasn’t wanted for the New Zealand squad for three ODI and three T20 matches versus India starting in Wellington on Friday. Stead yesterday said Guptill still had aspirations to fight his way back.

However, it’s impossible to envisage Guptill being part of the Black Caps white-ball sides touring Pakistan and India in the coming months.

Neither is the third-most prolific ODI scorer in New Zealand’s international cricket history likely to become a better player over the next 11 months prior to the World Cup in India – meaning his only realistic chance of making that squad being if Finn Allen fails horribly or there are injuries among the top-order bats.

Why he still has a slim chance in those scenarios is because no one else is knocking the door down, or even tapping politely.

In passing over Trent Boult for the six games versus India – something which is unlikely to have bothered the left-armer as the Big Bash League looms with the Melbourne Stars – Stead said ‘‘as we build towards more global events, we want to give opportunities and experiences to others’’.

But it’s the same tried and tested players getting those opportunities and experiences.

The least-capped players in the squad are Blair Tickner – 20 games and 29 years old – and the still-emerging Allen (eight ODIS and 23 T20s).

Quick bowler Ben Sears, who has played six T20s for New Zealand, may have got an opportunity but is currently bothered by a back injury.

Stead and fellow selector Gavin Larsen haven’t erred in compiling the squad – it’s just that the next cabs off the ranks for potential international selection are in the carpark at another terminal.

Games in India are difficult arenas to prove you have the ability to take the next step, but none of the players in the oneday games for New Zealand A there in September pushed their cause enough to make the jump up.

It’s undeniable that the Black Caps squad which has featured so consistently and competitively in the knockout stages of major ICC events over the past seven years has been a golden era of world-class talent and application.

But with many of those players now either retired, nearing the end of their careers or their peak, the lack of genuine top-class emerging talent is concerning.

Kane Williamson will skipper the team in both formats.

After a relatively risk-averse approach to T20s at the World Cup in a still-meritorious showing, Black Caps fans may hope to see a more adventurous method in a less pressure-packed environment against a touring side missing many of their stars.

But it’s still unlikely anyone will learn anything new.

The lack of genuine top-class emerging talent is concerning.