Ben Gardner evaluates the career of BJ Watling, one of New Zealand cricket’s most faithful servants.
Among New Zealand wicketkeepers, there’s only one player to have scored more than 3,000 runs in Test cricket. He also happens to be the only Kiwi gloveman, with a minimum of 200 runs, to average more than 35 with the bat, while he’s also the sole Black Caps stumper with more than five Test hundreds and 20 fifty-plus scores. He’s also out in front when it comes to dismissals made with the gloves, as the only player to clear 250 catches and stumpings. His name is Bradley-John Watling, and at the end of New Zealand’s Test tour of England, his career will come to an end.
Given the above stats, the fact that he holds basically every relevant national wicketkeeping record there is, maybe it’s uncontroversial to say that Watling is the best Test wicketkeeper-batsman his country has produced. But the presence of Brendon McCullum in the debate means coming to that conclusion isn’t so simple.
In terms of playing style, the two could barely be more distinct. McCullum was all about impact, seizing the initiative, charging headlong into the battle and flaying whatever came his way. Watling is almost the exact opposite, a quiet, steady accumulator, capable of constructing entire double hundreds without a single memorable stroke played.
That’s not to say that none of his knocks approach greatness, it’s just of a different sort. Watling has played many hugely important innings for New Zealand, turning positions of strife into those of comfort time and again, and it’s worth reliving a few just to remember how valuable he’s been. Apart from the aforementioned soporific, series-winning double, there was another ton against England at Headingley, scoring 120 as a specialist batsman to turn a shaky 141-4 into a match-winning 454-8d.
Then there’s his part in two world-record series-sealing sixth-wicket stands, each coming at the same ground, the Basin Reserve, and separated by just under two years. The first came alongside perhaps McCullum’s finest hour, with Baz’s rearguard triple hundred, rescuing a hopeless situation, made mostly alongside Watling. New Zealand were 94-5 in their second innings, still trailing by more than 150 against India when the keeper came in. He departed with New Zealand having added 352 to their score, an eight-and-a-half hour, 367-ball 124 to his name. The fact that he had just kept for nearly eight hours as India racked up 438, and had little rest before being asked to bat again, only makes the effort more impressive.
The second was only marginally less valuable, with New Zealand effectively 24-5 against Sri Lanka when he entered. This time his partner was Kane Williamson, and together they put on 365 to take the Black Caps to a match-winning lead. While the two stands were similar in terms of tempo, the identity of Watling’s partners highlights the shifting style of New Zealand cricket, and the role he has played in both.
McCullum defined their transformation into a team that would create a new way of playing the game, particularly in white-ball cricket. If that sounds too lofty, consider that Eoin Morgan’s England would win their first World Cup playing a brand of cricket inspired by McCullum and their heroically doomed attempt to win the 2015 global event.
But in Test cricket, where Watling has made his name, it’s Williamson’s more subtle method that has seen New Zealand reach the next level, and Watling embodies it perhaps more than any other. Under Williamson, the Black Caps have become practically unbeatable at home – epic rearguards are no longer needed to secure series wins, because now the Black Caps get out in front and stay there – with ascension to the top of the world rankings, and a place in the World Test Championship final a deserved reward.
McCullum’s best innings might have been that 302, but the one that was most quintessentially himself came in his final game, when he came in with New Zealand 32-3, Jackson Bird, Josh Hazlewood and James Pattinson wreaking havoc on a green one, and decided to have some fun of his own. He walked off just over two hours later having set a new record for the fastest Test hundred.
As a Test specialist, and given New Zealand’s lamentable lack of opportunities in showpiece fixtures outside of world tournaments, Watling’s talents have had little opportunity to grace a stage deserving of them. But a World Test Championship final, at Lord’s, is about as prestigious as it gets. It’s that fixture that will serve as his swansong, and a similar statement, in his own style, would serve as a fitting conclusion for a career and a cricketer who deserves the plaudits finally coming their way.
