Tim Southee and Test cricket say farewell to each other this coming week and whether selected or not – a hot topic here – any guard of honour will be a deserved one. Starting and finishing against England is a neat way for his 16 years with New Zealand to come full circle, too, as is his domestic home, leafy Seddon Park in Hamilton, playing host.
Cricketers are more than just numbers but for the farm boy from Waiotira on the North Island, one of four sport-mad siblings rarely to be found indoors, they are still worth repeating. Southee sits second only to Sir Richard Hadlee for Test wickets by a New Zealander, 389 to the knight’s 431. In the three-format men’s era, 774 wickets combined make him their No 1, as well as 10th in the world overall.
A banker for five captains and a skipper himself, Southee was also one half of a slick, complementary alliance with Trent Boult that spanned 13 years, saw 541 Test wickets finessed in tandem, and helped claim the World Test Championship in 2021. There has also been a profound mark on English cricket beyond simply duels over the years or three spots on the Lord’s honours boards; the humiliation his seven-wicket swing-clinic served up here in Wellington during the 2015 World Cup sparked a revolution.
Along the way Southee has come across as a pretty cool customer, even if a hand sanitiser dispenser was smashed up after a golden duck during a T20 World Cup defeat in Tarouba and his collar was felt. Instead, those beautiful out-swingers, allied with subtle changes of pace, crease position, and propelled from a 6ft 4in frame hardened on the farm, have done most of the talking. Swatting sixes down the order – 95 in Test cricket, starting with nine against England in Napier, aged 19 – has made for a more than handy side hustle too.
The final chapter has become a slightly awkward one to observe, however. In the wake of England’s unassailable 2-0 lead, prominent Kiwi voices and outlets are asking whether the three-Test farewell that Southee signposted last month has seen sentimentality trump cricketing sense. The 35-year-old is a bit down on pace, slightly bulldozed by Bazball, and is taking his Test wickets at 61 runs apiece in 2024.
Access to the new ball is one of the arguments here, with Will O’Rourke, 6ft 6in and quick, very much seen as the future but still operating at first change. Another is the clinical way that Neil Wagner was pushed earlier this year, or how Boult’s Test career simply stopped when he went freelance in 2022; the latter despite Boult’s stated desire to still be considered and Kane Williamson doing likewise and playing on.
It is hard not to wonder how Jimmy Anderson views all this. On tour as England’s bowling mentor, the 42-year-old seems still itching to be out there, having made little secret of the fact he was not ready to step aside earlier this year. But it may be that seeing a friend and respected opponent like Southee have his role publicly queried before the final curtain brings greater acceptance of the one-and-done offer he took up at the start of England’s Test summer.
Had Chris Woakes, Moeen Ali and Stuart Broad’s grand finale not bowled England to a series-levelling win on the final day of the 2023 Ashes, something similar could easily have begun to percolate. Anderson had taken five wickets at 85 across four Tests and while a slight uptick followed in India en route to his 700th Test wicket in Dharamsala, he was still used sparingly during the four he played.
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It was then that Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum decided the time had come to say goodbye and reboot the attack, an investment now paying out through the arrivals of Gus Atkinson, 48 wickets at 22, and Brydon Carse, 25 at 17. All told, even with a dash of sentimentality about the farewell, the pair pretty much did right by player and team.
Whichever way it falls in Hamilton – a crook from wings, a fairytale finish like Broad, or something in between – Southee’s impact is unlikely to be defined by it. The same could be said for the New Zealand team that won 3-0 in India but all of a sudden looks ripe for a reset. In time that tour will shed the blowout against England that followed and simply sparkle as an amazing, historic feat. And Southee, who cleared the rope four times in Bangalore to kickstart the whole thing, very much played his part.