Bat to the future: Black Caps call up Robinson
Tim Robinson is just what the Black Caps selectors have been looking for.
The Wellington top-order batter was the surprise name in the New Zealand squad named yesterday for the five-match Twenty20 series in Pakistan next month.
Robinson produced a couple of blistering knocks in the domestic T20 competition over summer and is seen as the ideal prototype of player for the format, with “explosive power”.
His selection was aided by 12 players being unavailable for the tour, as the Black Caps eye the T20 World Cup to be contested in the West Indies and the United States in June.
Even if Robinson excels in Pakistan, he’d still be a longshot to usurp one of the regulars to make the cut for the Cup, but he’s clearly seen as a long-term international.
“He has explosive power, and the ability to find the boundary,” selection manager Sam Wells said.
“Tim’s been highly-rated for a while. A guy with good technique and a lot of power ... that’s the type of player we’re looking for in the format, and he’s an outstanding fielder and a good athlete.”
Robinson was the second-highest run scorer in the men's Super Smash domestic T20 campaign in the just-completed season, despite playing only six of Wellington’s 11 games due to injury.
He made a stunning 139 from just 64 balls against the Otago Volts at the Basin Reserve, and less than a month later clubbed 86 off 46 against Canterbury in Christchurch.
“It's something I've dreamed of as a kid, trying to hit sixes in the back yard,” Robinson said yesterday.
“I love hitting sixes, and trying to entertain people and to be honest it's
addictive when you get one right out of the middle and it goes for a mile.”
Trent Boult, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Mitch Santner and Kane Williamson were all unavailable due to Indian Premier League commitments, while Tim Southee, the team’s leading T20 wicket-taker since the last World Cup, wasn’t considered for selection “to allow him a period of prolonged conditioning following a busy summer”,
NZ Cricket said.
That means Michael Bracewell will captain the squad and is set to play his first international match since last March.
Pace bowler Will O’Rourke is also poised to make his T20 debut for the Black Caps after doing so in the other two formats in recent months. He had match figures of 9-93 on test debut against South Africa and has recovered from the hamstring strain which saw him ruled out of the second test against Australia last month.
Bracewell ruptured an Achilles tendon in the middle of last year, forcing him to miss the ODI World Cup in India, and suffered a broken finger when on the comeback trail over summer.
The 33-year-old will now use the five games in Pakistan to stake a claim for a place in the World Cup squad.
Opener Finn Allen, wicketkeeper-batter Tim Seifert, batter Mark Chapman, allrounder Jimmy Neesham and legspinner Ish Sodhi are the other squad members who have the inside running on making the Black Caps squad for the World Cup.