Maybe it’s because of his young prep schoolmaster looks that we underestimate the gnarled pro that Daniel Vettori is, the maturity he has gathered over the years. That he is 31 is hard to believe for some. But dig deeper, and beneath his bespectacled countenance with an obvious Harry Potter resemblance is one of cricket’s shrewdest brains, a man who banks on his intellect and one who constantly enhances his utility to the side.
A cricket chronologist might be in quandary to place him. Despite being a high-quality spinner, a purveyor of an art losing vogue, he would be reckoned a tier below the spin triumvirate of the decade — Muttiah Muralitharan, Shane Warne and Anil Kumble. This is not just in terms of the prospective wickets he could end up with, but in achievement, the impact he has had on matches, the number of matches he had single-handedly won for New Zealand. He could have been bracketed along the greats of the era but for the lofty yardsticks scaled by the three leading wicket-takers in Tests.
But it’s not his fault that his career ran parallel to three all-time greats.
However, in the context of New Zealand cricket, Vettori is a modern-day gladiator, bidding to redeem New Zealand cricket from its apparent mediocrity, all on his own. And that has positively reflected on his career. His bowling has improved subtly. He has evolved into a canny exponent of the undercut and is known for his exploits the crease. He is known for his crafty change of pace, flight and length without much change in arm-speed.
With variable drift, his arm ball is hard to decipher and harder to dispatch. His growing efficacy is a reminder to his persistent efforts to redefine himself, thereby making himself less predictable.
Also bring into the picture that Vettori, unlike his better-rated contemporaries has had little support, either from his batsmen or bowlers. The batsmen rarely give him enough runs to show his true value and the pacers fail to take top-order wickets, forcing him into defence instead of attack. And he has played most of his cricket in the seam-friendly climes in New Zealand. Hence, his bowling average hovers around a modest 33. But with another five years of international cricket, at least, it is conceivable that Vettori might eclipse Richard Hadlee’s Black Caps’ record of 431 Test wickets. Vettori isn’t anyway much bothered about records: “That (Hadlee’s record) is a hard one. At my current rate I’d have to play 130 or 140 Tests, and anyway it would be nice if (Hadlee keeps the record). He was such an amazing bowler and probably our greatest cricketer. It’s a long way off. There are other things I want to tick off first.”
One of the areas to improve was his batting, which he has achieved with fair success. No longer is he a Number 8 scrapper. His progress is best proven by a batting average that has crept to above 30. He scored his first 1,000 runs in Test cricket in 47 matches at a handy ‘bowler’s average’ of 17.24. However, as part of his evolution into a true all-rounder, Vettori’s second 1,000 Test runs came at 42.52 in only 22 Tests, and he is inching towards the 4,000-run milestone. Batting at no. 8, Vettori averages 42.8, the highest average in history for any player in that position (among those who have played more than 10 innings).
The other mission is to develop New Zealand into a bunch of winners, which is not entirely in his hands as this team is not as blessed as its Antipodean rivals. It wasn’t the best time to take over as captain for Vettori, but he would have learnt considerably as Stephen Fleming’s understudy. Besides, Vettori is a thinking cricketer and remains calm under duress. His unflappable manner and keen tactical awareness ally with an understated resilience to make him ideal captaincy material.
It is harsh to judge Vettori solely in terms of statistics as he took over the captaincy at a turbulent juncture. A host of premature retirements, catalysed by coach John Bracewell’s dictatorial regime and the lure of Indian cash, turned the Kiwis into a side of pushovers. The bowling has retained traces of competence, but the batting has often been spineless. Hence his meagre success rate of 20.83 in Tests. But in ODIs, the win percentage shoots to 62.05. If he can help his team better its Test match record, and optmise the talent of Tim Southee, Ross Taylor and Jesse Ryder, better days await New Zealand.
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