HAVING been plucked from the wilderness to become a Black Cap at 29, left-arm bowler Andy McKay is shaping as the find of the cricket season.
While Bangladesh remains a minnow compared to the Great White Australian shark that looms as a truer test of New Zealand’s mettle next month, McKay’s pace and accuracy has been impressive.
On the fast Napier wicket he was clocked at 147kph, while on the slower University Oval at Dunedin he dismissed Bangladesh’s best batsman Tamim Iqbal for one and struck captain Shakib Al Hasan’s middle stump with a thunderbolt in Monday’s one-day international.
McKay’s figures of 2 for 17 from 10 overs marked him as New Zealand’s best bowler, although Ian Butler took one wicket more in capturing 3-45.
A former Howick Pakuranga player, McKay follows Sean Tracey, Brian Barrett and Kyle Mills as bowlers from the club who have won Black Caps honours.
Interestingly, his chance comes at a time when Mills is recovering from injury and gritty Iain O’Brien has retired from international cricket. Significantly, having been impressed by McKay when facing him, it was selector/captain Daniel Vettori who argued for his inclusion in the NZ one-day squad.
As a lefty, McKay has the pace, penetration and variation national selection panels had hoped James Franklin would possess before he became a batsman who could bowl a bit instead of vice versa. When Shane Bond is fit and available it will be interesting to see how he goes in tandem with McKay.
Australia, of course, is a much more dangerous foe, having unveiled some exciting newcomers who excelled against a Pakistani team that lost the will to win. Although their wins were decisive, I very much doubt they were as fantastic as their own television commentators bragged they were.
Meanwhile, I applaud the appointment of Mark Greatbatch as New Zealand’s cricket coach, although John Wright is just as honest, more experienced and would also have been an excellent choice. What Greatbatch brings to the job is a passion and an ability to win the kind of trust astute skipper Vettori has in him.
A hard-hitting left-hand batsman who once tempered his impetuosity to score 146 in 11 hours against the Aussies, Greatbatch could be the right man to hone a Black Caps batting line up which has failed to live up to its potential.
In Ross Taylor, Brendon McCullum, Martin Guptill, Vettori and an injury-free Jesse Ryder, they are not bereft of talent.
It is Greatbatch’s job to ensure they don’t squander their wickets because of foolish shot selection.
Meanwhile, the secrecy surrounding Taylor’s appointment to replace McCullum as vice-captain was curious. Surely McCullum can take it on the chin if it helps him to concentrate on becoming the truly great batsman he should be, and Taylor is becoming since being fine-tuned by Martin Crowe.
With the impatient opener McCullum playing on for 9 in Monday’s ODI, Taylor’s majestic 78 included five sixes to stamp him as the team’s outstanding batsman. As a hard-hitting attacker, McCullum is just as good. Unfortunately he lacks respect for the bowler’s best balls, which Taylor plays with the caution they deserve.
