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ANALYSIS: Aiming to predict which Black Cap will star on Tuesday night is like a lucky eight-year-old trying to decide which gift to open first on Christmas morning.
After Tim Seifert scored New Zealand’s top scorer against Pakistan in Hamilton on Sunday night, the list of players who have had a significant impact on the hosts in recent months just got longer.
Lockie Ferguson, Glenn Phillips and Devon Conway shone in the Twenty20 series against the West Indies before established stars Tim Southee, Kane Williamson, Tom Latham, Neil Wagner and Henry Nicholls made a strong showing in the test series masking against the same opposition. .
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Martin Guptill is upset about his dismissal against Pakistan at Seddon Park.
There was also Kyle Jamieson, who has started to test cricket like no other all-rounder.
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Now, in the first two games of the T20 series against the next visitors, we’ve seen rookie Jacob Duffy break into Pakistan’s higher order, Mark Chapman helps guide the team to another victory and Seifert records scores of 57 and 84 on his latest. two tickets.
Among all those contributors ahead of the T20 series final game against Pakistan at Napier on Tuesday night, there are two names that are notable omissions: Ross Taylor and Martin Guptill.
Between them, the pair have played a staggering 760 games for NZ across all three formats and have formed a sizable section of the Black Caps’ backbone for more than a decade.
Taylor was knocked out of the 18-man T20 team for the Pakistan series after scores of 0 and 0 were not against the Windies in the shorter form series, while he made 38 and nine in his two test innings at Hamilton. and Wellington.
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Ross Taylor fell in love with a duck in the first Twenty20 game of the season against the West Indies at Eden Park.
“I have absolute faith in Ross,” said New Zealand coach Gary Stead.
“The T20 selection was a very, very difficult selection, probably one of the most difficult we have had to do. He’s been a consistent performer, but we just couldn’t find a place on the team with what we’ve seen in Devon. [Conway] and Glenn Phillips too. “
Guptill hit a quick 34 of 23 balls Sunday, sporting a good nick, and Seifert praised his starting teammate for his role in getting the search for victory off to a joyous start.
But in his last 18 T20 matches since the start of 2019, the 34-year-old has completed just 331 runs with an average of 20.68, albeit with an excellent hit rate of 149.09.
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Martin Guptill got off to a fast start at Hamilton on Sunday night, but couldn’t find the big score he was looking for.
Between those innings are seven scores of 30 or more, which is probably one reason Stead and head coach Gavin Larsen won’t be in a rush to eliminate the most prolific hitter in NZ T20 history, by quite a margin. .
With the T20 World Cup scheduled for India next October, neither veteran appears to be completely ruled out, despite both feeling increasing pressure to be considered first-choice picks.
But what delights Larsen and Stead most is that Seifert, Phillips, Conway and Chapman, in the shortest format, are stepping up when opportunities present themselves.
