Analysing the Blackcaps Test Squad to Face Zimbabwe
The Blackcaps have announced their squad to face Zimbabwe with experience being a key factor across the squad.
Christmas has come in July; we have another Blackcaps Test squad to pore over and analyse. Largely, as was the case with the recently announced T20 squad, it is a matter of business as usual. I bet that, if you’re reading this, you could probably rattle off 12 or 13 of the names in the squad without breaking much of a sweat. If not, the squad is as follows:
Tom Latham (capt), Tom Blundell (wk), Devon Conway, Jacob Duffy, Matt Fisher, Matt Henry, Daryl Mitchell, Henry Nicholls, Will O'Rourke, Ajaz Patel, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Mitchell Santner, Nathan Smith, and Will Young.
The big inclusions are the world’s number one ranked T20 bowler, Jacob Duffy, and Matt Fisher, who are both in line for potential debuts. Excitingly, Rob Walter, via the NZC squad press release, described Fisher, 25, as “one of the fastest bowlers in the country”, which should have fans salivating. It also leads to the tantalising prospect of an “all Matts” opening bowling line-up, alongside Matt Henry. Go out there and bowl some thunderbolts, young man.
Elsewhere, Henry Nicholls, fresh off being granted an NZC central contract, earns a recall, while Ajaz Patel has also been included, despite recently missing out on a central contract. However, there’s going to be a follow-up article on this blog recapping the three biggest winners and losers from the squad, so let’s table that more granular analysis for now and focus on the bigger picture.
The first Test against Zimbabwe, which begins on July 24th, will not only be the first Test of the Rob Walter era, it will also mark the first time the Blackaps have played Test cricket on African shores since the second Test against South Africa at Centurion in August 2016, 3,263 days ago. It has been a long time between drinks.
If that novelty isn’t already enough, there’s still plenty on the line for the Blackcaps, albeit, notably, not World Test Championship rankings points, with these tests falling outside of the WTC. I don’t think it’s especially controversial or arrogant to say that the Blackcaps will be expected (and, internally, expecting) to win both Tests comfortably, particularly after recently watching Zimbabwe ship 367* runs to Wiaan Mulder and then proceed to be bowled out for 170 and 220. In that light, it is a great shame that Kane Williamson, currently 728 runs shy of 10,000 in Test cricket, is skipping this series, as he might have mowed those down in one innings. I just hope if Latham gets anywhere near the record, he has the bottle to go for it… Brian Charles who?
So, with the Blackcaps favoured to win these two Tests comfortably and no WTC points on the line, what is up for grabs? Still quite a lot, as is the case any time you play Test cricket for your country. As a Blackcaps fan, you don’t need to glance too far ahead in the schedule to notice some pretty tantalising marquee series coming up next year, which the team will want to be hitting in top form. After a sparse 2025, between June 2026 and March 2027, the Blackcaps are scheduled to play a whopping 14 Tests, including:
One against Ireland (away)
Three against England (away)
Two against India (home)
Four against Australia (away)
Two against Sri Lanka (home)
Two against Pakistan (away)
It’s like London buses: as a Black Caps fan, you wait around for a marquee series, and then suddenly, three arrive at once. With only these two Tests and three against the West Indies at the end of the year to come before that mouth-watering run kicks off, players (particularly the Test specialists like Blundell and Patel) will be desperate to put their best feet forward and ensure they remain in the frame to play back-to-back-to-back series against the so-called Big Three.
However, with that said, we do have to address the elephant in the room: the age profile of this squad. While I assume Vincent will go into more detail in his follow-up winners and losers piece, broadly, I saw this series, against a weaker opposition and falling outside of the WTC, as the perfect opportunity to blood some new faces, such as Mariu, Abbas, Hay, and Ashok. That is very much the approach South Africa has taken in their ongoing series, resting many of their stars, like Rabada, Bavuma, and Jansen, and instead handing Mulder the captaincy and blooding a pair of 19-year-olds in Maphaka and Pretorius.
Evidently, the New Zealand brains trust sees things differently, passing on the opportunity to blood too many new faces (Fisher aside), and instead going into this series with a fully loaded squad, give or take Williamson, Sears, and Jamieson.
Both approaches have their pros and cons, and only hindsight will reveal the correct decision, though I do feel compelled to point out that, by the time that England series kicks off next June, members of this squad will be the following ages:
Tom Latham (34)
Tom Blundell (35, a month off being 36)
Devon Conway (35)
Jacob Duffy (31, a month off being 32)
Matt Fisher (26)
Matt Henry (34)
Daryl Mitchell (35)
Henry Nicholls (34)
Will O'Rourke (24)
Ajaz Patel (37)
Glenn Phillips (29)
Rachin Ravindra (26)
Mitch Santner (34)
Nathan Smith (27)
Will Young (33)
Nearly half of the current squad (8) will be 34+. Kane Williamson will also be 35. They’re not getting any younger, is my point, and the last thing NZC would want is for several of the older players to lose form simultaneously in the middle of that mega-run of tests, leaving us scrambling and throwing replacements in the deep end, when they could have been blooded with a friendlier run of games against Zimbabwe and the West Indies.
On the other hand, we might come into those Tests with a settled, experienced side packed with role-definition, confidence, and clarity and go 14-0. One can only hope!
Possible New Zealand XI for the opening Test: Latham (c), Conway, Young, Ravindra, Mitchell, Blundell (wk), Phillips, Santner, Smith, Henry, O’Rourke.
Bench: Patel, Nicholls, Fisher, and Duffy.