Australia vs New Zealand 2019: BJ Watling's epoch of unrivalled incredibility
The scene at Hamilton had changed drastically. Nothing seemed to be working for England. Jack Leach bowled it a bit wide with some turn. Left alone. Slider on the stumps. Punched out to cover off the back foot. Spin? Nah, you have got to try harder to dismiss him. He's not the one to be tempted easily or lured into a shot that never is.
Jofra Archer came back on. Shortish delivery with a wee bit of width, at which point you should be worried if he bowled anything other than that length. The batsman jumped, dropped back and cut this in front of square for a boundary. Later in the over, Archer surprised him with a 142 kph yorker. It should probably have got him out. It didn’t. He's BJ Watling after all.
Given his knack for driving and cutting through the off-side, England cleverly blocked all his scoring options. He still managed to paddle sweep Leach to fine leg for a boundary before he hits a length ball from Stuart Broad straight along the ground for another boundary, sporting a wry smile.
He is not an unusual player by Test match standards. What does a Test batsman do? Defend, punch, drive, cut, score. He did exactly that. He's lauded for his skills because it is unusual for a batsman to face almost 500 balls in a single innings of a Test in an era where formats keeping getting shorter and the sixes hit become longer. That's flashy cricket. Then add the responsibility of keeping for hours together. He’s almost like an aide to the bowlers and the captain.
Watling is a physical manifestation of every adage that there is on standing up tall to the rising challenges as he weathers the storm to bring a balmy calm amidst troubled waters. He doesn’t get much recognition for what he does except when he’s coveted the limelight for a double century or for batting for hours at length to draw a Test.
In Sri Lanka, he batted for 306 minutes for his century and 667 minutes against England back home for his double century. It’s not for nothing when players of a high standing in the game like Adam Gilchrist hail him as the ‘best keeper-batsmen in the world at the moment.’
On one hand, you have Steve Smith, with an inimitable fidgety action, scoring runs for fun, winning accolades. On the other hand, Watling is a classical textbook player who hardly seems to budge at times. Sometimes, he plays it too straight to dislodge the bails at the other end. Nobody’s mimicking his style in the nets or at the shadow practice surely. He’s a technically correct batsman but surely not an unusual one.
Australia was always going to be a daunting challenge at home. The annihilation that they caused on the first Test in Perth wasn’t the one anticipated against a quality Kiwi batting line-up. Having notched up a respectable 416, the Aussies gained a resounding 250-run lead after they bundled out the tourists for a mere 166. After not enforcing the follow-up, the target set by the hosts was an insurmountable 467 in five sessions.
Colin de Grandhomme and BJ Watling did manage to stitch a brief, solid stand in the last innings, however, it only delayed the inevitable as the New Zealand side went down by a whopping margin of 296 runs with a day left.
Gearing up for the Boxing Day Test at the MCG, which New Zealand hasn’t been a part of since 1987, BJ Watling talked to Sportskeeda and explained what it is to be a part of such a rare occasion.
“It’s very exciting. I know a lot of kiwis are making the trip over for the game. It’s been a long time since New Zealand’s had a chance to play in one. I know there’s a lot of excitement around it but in terms of preparation and getting ready for the game, the boys will continue to do what they’ve been doing for a long period of time and treat it as any other Test match."
He further added, “Obviously it’s still a Test match and we are going out there looking to win. The boys are pretty fizzed and excited about it.”
However, the soaring high temperatures in Perth are likely to follow the teams in Melbourne as well. In fact, the first day of New Zealand’s only warm-up fixture against a young Victorian side had to be cancelled due to extreme heat. Watling explained how the team is coping in such harsh conditions.
“It’s a bit drier here but you can still feel the heat. We have got a great crew around us making sure our fluids stay up. We’ll look to recover after every day’s play but it’s certainly a challenge of touring I guess.”
As Test cricket returns to its familiar red-ball setting, it’s hard to get over the sense of the unknown that the pink ball has caused lately. Not only had it been a talking point during India’s pink-ball debut against Bangladesh recently but also it did tricks under the lights at Perth. On the second, third and the fourth day of the first Test, in the post-Tea sessions, there seemed to be a dramatic collapse caused, even by the old ball, as the sides lost five wickets on all three days.
Being a keeper, it can be hard graft adjusting to the pink ball as visibility becomes an issue. Talking from a wicket-keeper’s perspective.
“The pink ball does different things at certain times at day and night. There’s certainly a little bit of movement behind the stumps as the ball swings past the batter. For me, it’s about trying to make sure my positions are sound, watching the ball hard and trying to do the best I can.”
If the 2018 ICC Test team had the swashbuckling young gun Rishabh Pant as the stand-out wicket-keeper, 2019’s team of the year is set to feature BJ Watling. Quite deservedly so after long marathon knocks in contrasting conditions with a mindful doggedness that has seen him average 80.33 across his six Tests in 2019 with the bat and has also gone on to have record dismissals for New Zealand in Test cricket.
If anything, Test cricket needs more BJ Watlings.