Tests, T20s, IPL? What's next for Rachin Ravindra after his star turn at the Cricket World Cup

Stuff

17 November 2023

Tests, T20s, IPL? What's next for Rachin Ravindra after his star turn at the Cricket World Cup

The catch is the next 12 months are set to only feature three ODIs – against Bangladesh at home in the week before Christmas.

Fifty-over action will ramp up again next November in the lead-up to the Champions Trophy in early 2015, but by the time ODIs come back into the focus, the Black Caps will have been busy with the game’s two other formats.

Starting in Bangladesh next week, they have six test series to play by the end of next year as part of the next edition of the World Test Championship, and they also have a Twenty20 World Cup to tackle in the West Indies and United States next June.

So with Ravindra coming off a breakout campaign in India, where he scored 578 runs – the most at one World Cup by any player aged 25 and under and the eighth-most of all time – at an average of 64.22 and a strike rate of 106.44, there’s an obvious next question.

Where, if anywhere, does he fit into the Black Caps’ test and T20 teams?

The answer to the first question will come quickly, with the first test in Bangladesh starting next Tuesday, less than a fortnight after the Black Caps’ semifinal defeat to India at the World Cup.

Ravindra has already played three tests – two in India at the end of 2021 and one against Bangladesh at the start of 2022. He batted at No 7 while offering a third spin option on the road and playing as the only spinner alongside four seamers at home.

He played a match-saving innings on debut in India, batting for an hour and a half with the bowlers to secure a rare draw in Nagpur, but after the Black Caps suffered a shock home loss to Bangladesh, he made way for an extra batter.

When the Black Caps next went looking for a spin-bowling all-rounder to balance their XI, on the tour of England later that year, Ravindra’s Wellington Firebirds team-mate Michael Bracewell got the nod instead.

It was Bracewell’s Achilles injury earlier this year that opened the door for Ravindra to make the ODI World Cup squad, and off the back of that tournament, he now appears in the box seat to also take Bracewell’s place in the test team.

The Black Caps’ top six of Tom Latham, Devon Conway, Kane Williamson, Daryl Mitchell, Henry Nicholls and wicketkeeper Tom Blundell is settled, with three spinners and two seamers, one of whom will be captain Tim Southee, likely to join them in Bangladesh.

Coach Gary Stead and selector Sam Wells have picked two out-and-out spinners in left-armer Ajaz Patel and leg-spinner Ish Sodhi as well as three all-rounders – Ravindra and Mitchell Santner, who are both left-armers, and Glenn Phillips, an off-spinner.

It's likely one of the all-rounders will play alongside the two frontliners. If that is the case, whoever is chosen will get the first chance to lock the role down heading into the home summer, where South Africa and Australia are touring. For those matches, there is likely to be a single spin-bowling all-rounder alongside four seamers.

Both Ravindra and Phillips shape as players with futures in the test top-order and one way to signal that could be to bat whoever is chosen – or one of them, if both are – at No 6, above Blundell. Will Young looks set to be the backup batter in Bangladesh and will be in the conversation alongside those two if the form of one of the top five takes a dip in the coming months.

“Working out where he fits in a batting order that's been very, very successful for us is one of the conundrums that we're we're having,” Stead said of Ravindra and the test team this week.

“They're good problems to have, when you have someone like Rachin coming along and opening up the world with his performances. Time will tell where he fits.”

T20 has been Ravindra’s least-impressive format as a batter, both domestically, where he has typically been a top-four batter, and in his 18 international appearances so far, where he has mostly featured down the order.

You would expect his talent to eventually shine through in the game’s shortest format, but whether there’s a need for him in the plans for next year’s World Cup might depend on whether Bracewell returns from injury in time.

Even while his T20 batting form has done little to encourage it, Ravindra might also have an eye on the Indian Premier League auction next month. As a versatile player of Indian heritage who has just made a name for himself on Indian soil, he might well find himself with suitors willing to reward him with a substantial payday.