Man of steel primed
Daniel Vettori’s days in test cricket whites might be complete but, as Andrew Alderson writes, his presence will be welcome in black this summer.
As the white picket fence gate eases shut on Daniel Vettori’s playing career, a generation of fans are set to see him in what might be his final home summer of action.
If Vettori decides to retire after next year’s World Cup, there will be a void, such is the familiarity of his innocuous run-up with ball firmly gripped in left hand, bespectacled face peeking from behind his right armpit, followed by deliveries capable of befuddling a batsman’s mind. Vettori has also swatted, nurdled and slugged out a batting career using extraordinary hand-eye co-ordination as his compass.
The 35-year-old acknowledges he won’t add to his 112 tests, unless something drastic happens.
“[Test cricket’s] not at the forefront of my mind,” he says. “I can’t guarantee the amount of overs [required] to play a test match and don’t want to get in the way of Ish [Sodhi] and Mark [Craig] in their development. It’s definitely on the back burner.
“The World Cup’s the goal. Tests would put too much of a strain on the body at this stage of my career.”
Vettori contemplated retiring from 50-over cricket after the last World Cup in 2011, when he stood down as captain.
However, his perseverance rehabilitating from enough injuries to make an MRI scanner wince has been worthwhile.
He’s expected to be named this week in the New Zealand squad to play three one-dayers against South Africa next month, before heading to the United Arab Emirates in December to play Pakistan.
Captain Brendon McCullum will be grateful for the return of a senior professional. There’s a glint of steel to Vettori and part of his legacy will be his knitting a relatively weak team together as skipper during 2007-11.
He didn’t have the services, as McCullum does, of now-mature players such as Ross Taylor, Kane Williamson and Tim Southee. If it wasn’t for Vettori’s tenacious bowling and rearguard batting in many series, who knows where New Zealand would now rank?
Compelling reasons justify why a fit Vettori is always welcome in the New Zealand cricket fold.
Just seeing ‘DL Vettori’ on a team sheet is enough to add a different psychological dimension to a game for both teams. In 275 ODIs, he’s taken 284 wickets at an economy rate of 4.11 and a batting strike rate of 82.
Spin experience will be vital during the World Cup on pitches where only one is likely to be used.
“It’s hardly a small sample size so the amount of games he’s played, run-rates he’s controlled and wickets he’s taken are invaluable, as is the gap he fills batting in the lower-middle order,” former team-mate Jacob Oram says. “Nathan McCullum’s done a hell of a job in Dan’s absence. His statistics are also consistent but he tends to get overlooked because he’s not a headline player.
“The option of Dan’s left-arm spin, coupled with experience, could be a missing link. From an opposition perspective, he carries respect. Other teams are wary of his accuracy, which can only be a good thing [for New Zealand].
“Opposition batsmen have to put pressure on other bowlers and take