BJ Watling will hang up his gloves after the Black Caps' upcoming England tour. Photo / Photosport
BJ Watling will hang up his gloves after the Black Caps' upcoming England tour. Photo / Photosport
By calling time on his career when he has, BJ Watling has achieved the notable feat of going out with the public believing he had more to give.
The 35-year-old has been an undersized giant in New Zealand's rise from mid-table mediocrity to one of the big players on theinternational stage, though his role as an unfussy keeper and rock-solid middle order batsman is sometimes overlooked.
While it's always sad to see the greats go, if there is one position New Zealand is loaded in, it's wicketkeepers.
In times gone past there was a distinction made between "pure" wicketkeepers and keeper-batsmen, but that is irrelevant now. You cannot make a team on the basis of your keeping alone, no matter how silky your work behind the stumps. To play international cricket with the big gloves these days, you are expected to be able to score centuries while wearing the small gloves as well.
Here are New Zealand's test options in the post-BJ era.
The most obvious answer is a straight swap of Blundell for Watling. In fact, it would be a shock (or an injury) for that not to be the case in first test following the World Test Championship.
Blundell has been groomed for this job for a number of years now and immediately showed he was up to the task when scoring a century on debut against the West Indies in 2017, when Watling was out injured.
The selectors have so much faith in his batting he has been used as a makeshift test opener where he has enjoyed some success, most notably a century against a rampant Australia at the MCG in the Boxing Day test.
Runs have been harder to come by since then, especially in the team's first innings, when openers are expected to earn their corn, so a shift back down to the middle order makes sense.
2. Tom Latham
Tom Latham. Photo / Photosport
At first glance it would seem counterproductive to hand the team's one world-class opener the gloves but with a few parts moving into place, having Latham keep could offer all sorts of exciting balance options.
If Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra emerge from this England sojourn as genuine test options at the top of the order, then moving Latham down gives you a senior player and team leader behind the stumps, and a left-handed rock in a middle-order full of right-handers.
This option is probably only feasible if Ravindra becomes the player everybody hopes he can become because it would mean your primary spinner was also an opener, which gives you far more flexibility with your bowling slots.
At this stage it's a long shot but to these eyes, one with the huge potential upside.
3. Tim Seifert
Tim Seifert. Photo / Photosport
Seifert's boosters would say that his talent is impossible to ignore but to date that has most been seen in the shortest of the formats.
Brendon McCullum is a huge fan of Seifert's and believes it is a matter of time before he emerges as New Zealand's best all-format option.
If you're going to pick a hole in his case, it would be that in the past year or so his Twenty20 commitments have meant he hasn't played enough red-ball cricket. It's not a problem unique to him but Seifert played just four first-class matches last summer, though still found time to score a century for New Zealand A.
At this point he needs an injury to Blundell to jump the queue.
4. Devon Conway
Devon Conway. Photo / Photosport
The guy has to play and if keeping is the most expedient way to get him in, then give him the gloves.
Hopefully it won't come to that. He has the obvious class to make it as a batsman alone and while he has already kept wicket at a functional level for New Zealand in international cricket, the demands of a T20 match are not comparable to that of a test.
Conway, in reality, should only be considered a back-up who could take the gloves during a test if the first-choice breaks a finger or suffers some other calamity.
