Heading into Women's T20 World Cup 2024, New Zealand had ten games against England - five at home and five away - and three against Australia. Playing two top T20I sides, their preparation could not have been any better, one would think. At the end of it, though, New Zealand have 13 T20I losses to show. This is the most un-winningest they have been heading into a T20 World Cup.
Yet, alarm bells are not ringing in the New Zealand camp. The experience in the squad - only wicketkeeper Isabella Gaze is playing her first World Cup - is enough to maintain calm. The core of the unit has been the same for the last few years. And yet, they decided to make a tweak ahead of last year's World Cup - separate the opening pair of Suzie Bates and Sophie Devine. On the list of the most successful opening partnerships in T20Is, Bates and Devine - known as the Smash Sisters - sit pretty at third. New Zealand needed Devine's power and hitting prowess in the middle and latter part of the innings and hence decided to make the switch.
Georgia Plimmer has partnered Bates at the top after Bernadine Bezuidenhout's retirement earlier this year but is yet to have the desired effect. It is no surprise because Plimmer is only 20, and facing some of the world's best bowlers is no easy task. Wouldn't New Zealand be better off with Devine at the top?
"We see Sophie in particular as an absolute world-class ball-striker and having the power a little bit later in the innings is something that we think is really, really important," New Zealand head coach Ben Sawyer told ESPNcricinfo.
"We flip that [question] a little bit: when there are four [fielders] out and you're asking someone to go at eight or tens an over and the game's on the line, who better to have than Sophie Devine? That's the way we've looked at it. To have Sophie up the top is amazing but we also think having Soph in the middle and finishing off games for us is amazing.
"We are not expecting Sophie to be able to bat up top, get through a powerplay, do it at a really high strike rate, then bat through the middle and also finish the game off for us. That's a lot to ask of one player. Getting off to a great start in the powerplay is really important but we also feel that finishing off the game is really important. We'd love to have Soph bat the whole way through, or any other world's greats bat the whole way through, but it doesn't tend to happen."
Since February last year, Devine has opened the batting for New Zealand just once. She has scored two fifties in this period, both at No. 4. In both the warm-up matches ahead of the tournament proper, though, she batted at No. 3, a position she last batted in a T20I at in 2018.
"I like Sophie opening because I think the best players want to face the most number of deliveries," former New Zealand wicketkeeper Katey Martin, who retired in 2022, told ESPNcricinfo. "But I understand the decision around why they see her through their middle order - to elongate the batting order. The biggest challenge for Sophie going from opening to a middle-order role is that you face spin quite regularly [in the middle order]. It's you might face one over of spin early in the powerplay, but you're actually facing more spin throughout that middle when you start and what are your options around that?
"She is always a slower starter anyway. So it's not like you're going to get her exploding when she's betting in the powerplay. It's just the fact the number of deliveries she gets to face. For New Zealand, she is such a key weapon and I think maybe the fact that she batted at No. 3 in that warm-up game was to say that a floating role maybe when New Zealand chase. If she is going to bat in that middle order, [the challenge] is how the top three set up the game, so that they are enabling her to be as effective as she can, but also hitting a strike rate that they need in terms of their role."
Since last year's T20 World Cup, New Zealand have scored 140 or more in an innings only seven times in 22 matches. Their collective batting average in this period is only 19.39; only Scotland and Bangladesh average lower among teams at this T20 World Cup. Their batting strike rate in the same period is 105.47; only Scotland, Pakistan and Bangladesh fare worse.
Prima facie it does seem like batting is a concern for New Zealand, especially in conditions that may be tough to bat in.
"Batting is an area that hasn't necessarily been developed through a period of time for years in New Zealand and it's not specifically the batting," Martin said. "It's just the development of batters within our domestic game. And you're not challenged as much [in domestic cricket] as you are internationally, which goes without saying. When you get an opportunity early in your career, not playing too many domestic games going straight away and playing international cricket, you get exposed so much quicker. And that's not the fault of the players by any stretch of the imagination. It's just the position that New Zealand cricket is in around developing those youngsters.
"While it's a concern in terms of that, the numbers aren't necessarily there, when you look at the way that the team are playing, you still see them inventing, you see them moving around, you see them making the effort. So I don't think it's a lack of effort. It is a concern, but I still think that they're trending in the right way.
"You look at Australia, they're all domestic contracted full-time players and they're playing A tournaments, India A as well. There's a lot of competition at that lower level below the international stage. WPL, WBBL, the standards, the pressure, the experience is allowing those players to develop a lot quicker. And you've seen a number of Indian and Australian domestic players perform at their international stage because they've learned that domestically. So that's just a continued focus around how to develop the players so that they're prepared for international cricket and prepared in a way that they can be successful straight off the bat rather than having to develop on their international stage."