What a difference a year can make. While very few places around the world have been left untouched by Covid-19, New Zealand has been luckier than most. And the country’s men’s international cricketers have made the most of it.
But even as they sat in the Hagley Park dressing room on Wednesday afternoon, reflecting on New Zealand’s rise to No 1 in the Test rankings for the first time, the players would have been entitled to rewind the tape, 12 months to the day, to another dressing room, in another country, and a vastly different set of emotions.
6 January, 2020 saw the Black Caps suffer the final indignity of a tour when promise imploded into humiliation, beaten inside of four days for the third time in a row as Nathan Lyon spun the Sydney Test to an early end.
While Lyon’s 10 wickets consigned New Zealand to their final defeat, the tourists had been spun out mentally from the start, losing the three matches by 296, 247 and 279 runs respectively.
For a side that had arrived filled with optimism on the back of a home series win over England, and who had left behind a country full of excitement about the prospect of New Zealand’s first Boxing Day Test at the MCG for 32 years, the disaster that transpired was a bitter disappointment.
That it didn’t prove demoralising for the home summer that followed reflects the character and humility that has been instilled into a nation that has reached the past two finals of the ICC World Cup.
The nice guys don’t always have to finish second. Professional coaches will tell you that they learn the most about their charges in the toughest situations; how they handle disappointment or non-performance and, most importantly, how they respond.
New Zealand’s ranking is testament to how the Black Caps responded to probably the biggest letdown in the Test arena that most of the players had ever had. Six weeks after that trauma concluded, the all-star India batting line-up was fired out for 165 and 191 at the Basin Reserve, as New Zealand won by 10 wickets.
That victory was historic, and almost as much a coming of age as is the new ranking. New Zealand’s 100th victory in Test matches, it was achieved 90 years after the country first played.
It took New Zealand 26 years to win their first Test, against West Indies in 1956, and 72 years, and 296 Tests, to reach their half-century of wins, which was achieved against England in 2002. The second fifty came at lightspeed by comparison, in just 18 years from 145 Tests.
A seven-wicket win in the second Test completed the domination of India, eclipsing a side that contained nine of the 11 who recently shocked Australia at the MCG.
Although it can be argued it has been made easier for the Black Caps, as they have played eight of their past 11 series at home, you can only beat who is put in front of you. An unbeaten record from their past 17 home Tests, 13 of which have been won, highlights their effectiveness operating in familiar conditions.
Since the SCG, the Black Caps have won six Tests in a row, which is a first. Such is the manner that the current side has captured the public imagination, it is threatening to rival the class of the 1980s as the standard bearer of New Zealand cricketing excellence.
That decade saw New Zealand go unbeaten in Test series at home, a run that began against Clive Lloyd’s fearsome West Indians of 1980, and lasted for 12 summers, before finally being ended by England, under the command of Graham Gooch, in 1992.
Spearheaded by the incomparable Sir Richard Hadlee, surrounded by seasoned professionals such as Martin Crowe, John Wright, Jeremy Coney, Ewen Chatfield and Ian Smith amongst others, New Zealand defeated every Test-playing country, inspiring the nation as a result.
Test cricket became cool, and crowds flocked to see their heroes in action, in much the same way as they have packed the grass embankments during the recent tours by West Indies and Pakistan.
One of the key strengths of the 1980s was the togetherness of the side, united in purpose, well led, but with a good supporting group of leaders, the classic sum of its parts being greater than the effectiveness of the individuals. There was more playing depth than New Zealand cricket had ever enjoyed before, fuelling consistency due to the fierce competition for places.
There is no shortage of similarities to the current crop. Each era had its stars.
New Zealand’s two most prolific century-makers, Kane Williamson (25) and Ross Taylor (19), are the mainstays of the present-day batting order. The next two on the list, Martin Crowe (17) and John Wright (12), were core members of the 1980s generation.
Likewise, while Hadlee’s 431 wickets remain unsurpassed by a New Zealander, 31 years after his retirement, Tim Southee (302) and Trent Boult (281) are leading the chase among the current bowlers, split only by the long-serving spinner, Daniel Vettori (361). The feisty South African-born quick Neil Wagner (219) is sixth, but just 14 behind the fifth-placed Chris Martin.
Yet for all the star power of both eras, the sharing of responsibilities has been the key to success.
Since 2017, Williamson, Taylor, opener Tom Latham and middle-order batsman Henry Nicholls have accumulated 21 centuries and over 6,500 runs between them. Southee, Boult, and the irrepressible Wagner have claimed 275 wickets during the same period. None can afford to rest on their laurels.
The emergence of Kyle Jamieson has made headlines with 36 wickets in just six Tests, broadening the depth of pace bowling options for a side that usually only plays three quicks.
The pressure from the prolific domestic batsman, Will Young, and the South African recruit Devon Conway, was such that Nicholls, despite being ranked 12th on the world Test batting rankings, was only a failure away from the axe, until his 174 against West Indies in the second Test of the summer.
Daryl Mitchell’s maiden Test century this week could have regular all-rounder Colin de Grandhomme sweating before the next New Zealand Test XI is selected, whenever that might be.
The lack of a proven test spinner is a weakness which, while less of a vulnerability on New Zealand’s seamer-friendly pitches, has been exposed too often for comfort in foreign conditions.
Perhaps that is a further role for Williamson. Why not? He can do everything else.
The world’s No 1-ranked batsman has rolled his arm over sparingly since rehabilitating his arm action but broke a stubborn lower order partnership at Hagley showing that, even when the Black Caps are in the field, it’s hard to keep their ever-humble skipper out of the action.
In Williamson, New Zealand cricket has arguably the most influential captain it has ever had, the level of his influence on the side’s fortunes on par to that exercised by Richie McCaw. Like his two-time Rugby World Cup-winning All Black counterpart, Williamson has guided his side to the top of the world.
For a nation that was once bowled out for 26 in a Test match, the achievement is arguably even greater.
