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Everyone aspires to be on the Lord’s honors board. New Zealand’s Tim Southee has now got there twice. Playing his fourth Test at cricket’s Mecca, the Kiwi pacer’s six for 43 in the first innings had provided New Zealand with an opportunity to press for a win in the rain-hampered first Test against England. The match eventually ended in a draw.
Trivia: Only 13 bowlers from the visiting teams have taken more than two five-fors at Lord's. Before Southee, the last bowler to take multiple five-fors at Lord's was Glenn McGrath. He got his third five-for at the venue during the 2005 Ashes series.
Southee has been around for almost a decade-and-a-half. He might not intimidate batsmen like Pat Cummins, Kagiso Rabada, Jasprit Bumrah or James Anderson but in the recent past, he has outdone almost every pace bowler in international cricket.
Southee is only the third pacer after Cummins and Stuart Broad to bag 100 wickets in Test cricket since 2018.
The fact that the likes of Rabada, Anderson, Mitchell Starc, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma have played more Tests than Southee in this timeframe provides a perspective on the importance of this achievement.
Most successful bowlers in Tests in 2018
Breaking into the senior New Zealand side as a talented teenager, Southee has always been a bankable option for the national team across all formats. However, his form of late in Test cricket has taken him to a whole different level.
Breaking Tim Southee’s bowling career into phases
Out of his 12 five-wicket hauls, six have come in the last 20 Tests.
Adaptibility is an aspect that stands out for Southee in this phase. As a bowler who relies on swinging the ball, Southee has cherished bowling in helpful home conditions and has often struggled to be as consistent overseas. Till 2018, his career bowling average was above 31, with his away-from-home average touching 34.
During the current phase, Southee has played six overseas Tests, picked up 29 wickets under an average of 20. He has also been brilliant in the three Tests he has played in Asia (UAE and Sri Lanka), claiming 11 wickets at 20.54. Even in Australia, Southee was very effective in the 2019-20 tour.
His incredible transformation has benefitted New Zealand, who are enjoying a happy run at the No.2 spot in the ICC Tests Rankings and will play the inaugural ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final against India at Southampton in less than two weeks.
Despite the phenomenal run in recent times, Southee, unfortunately, hasn’t really grabbed as many headlines as some of his contemporaries.
In the jungle of bigwigs, maybe that’s the price you pay for hailing from the little island nation of five million people. Moreover, having to bowl alongside the likes of Trent Boult, Neil Wagner and Kyle Jamieson has made it tougher for Southee to stand out in his own team. New Zealand fans will be hoping by the end of the Southampton Test, Southee will force many headlines to come his way.
Tim Southee takes rapid strides to the top
At 32, Tim Southee is already New Zealand’s third-highest wicket-taker after Daniel Vettori and Richard Hadlee. Starting as a teenager has helped him play more cricket across different formats. His batting down the order and fielding were a bonus and it made him invaluable to the Kiwis side.
As a bowler, he is famous for his accuracy and the ability to swing the ball. Southee is a tall fast-bowler and hence relies more on pitched-up deliveries.
In the early 2010s, he seemed like a natural inheritor to the slot of New Zealand’s pace spearhead, but some of his teammates grabbed the limelight.
When Southee arrived, Shane Bond and Daryl Tuffey were approaching the twilight of their careers. Trent Boult’s initial rise was rapid as he leapfrogged Southee to become the leader of the New Zealand pace battery.
Neil Wagner’s emergence changed things further. The variety he brought with his hit-the-deck approach made him a talked-about commodity, and the past year-and-a-half has been about the Kyle Jamieson buzz.
Southee’s limited appearances in ODIs may have helped him focus better on red ball cricket and manage the workload. He has played just seven ODIs in the past two-and-a-half years. His last appearance in 50-over cricket came 16 months ago.
Placed in sixth spot in the ICC Test Bowling Rankings, Southee is currently the second-ranked Kiwi bowler in the world behind Neil Wagner. His show at Lord’s will help him gain more points, and by the time the attention shifts to the WTC final, he may well start as the leader of the pack and the top-ranked New Zealand bowler.
Southee enjoys an enviable record against India. He has 39 wickets from eight Tests at an average of 24.46, which is better than Boult (36 wickets from nine Tests at 29.52) and Wagner (18 wickets from five Tests at 28.5).
The Indian batsman will have to pay special attention to the right-arm fast bowler to negate his swing. Kane Williamson will be counting on his 32-year-old pacer to break down the talented Indian batting line-up which consists of the likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane to name a few.
Having mastered the Duke ball, Southee will hope for his good run to continue as New Zealand eye their first Test series win in England in 22 years and an ICC tournament trophy in 21 years.
Trivia: The last time New Zealand won an ICC tournament was the Champions Trophy in 2000. The Stephen Fleming-led New Zealand beat Sourav Ganguly’s India in the tournament final in Nairobi.
Do you think Southee will be able to help New Zealand to win the WTC final?
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