Home fans will have the opportunity to say thank you to one of the last symbolic remnants of their golden era. With New Zealand having been thrashed twice in a row to lose the series with a game to spare, Southee’s retirement not only marks the end of the career of one of New Zealand’s greatest, but time to move on from romanticising a BlackCap side which rose to the top despite the significant disparities in opportunity they face, and the start of a new, refreshed chapter.

There has been a slight awkwardness about the manner of Southee's farewell tour. He has been the least threatening New Zealand seamer across the opening two England Tests and was retained for the Hamilton Test ahead of Nathan Smith, who has impressed in his first outing as a Test cricketer.

Nevertheless, that Southee has been allowed this final bow somewhat highlights the esteem in which he’s held in New Zealand’s ranks. When Neil Wagner’s time came, there was no victory lap for a bowler who played an irreplaceable role in New Zealand’s rise to Test No.1 status. Instead, told he would not be picked for their series against Australia earlier this year, Wagner’s retirement was announced in a tearful press conference, days before the start of the series.

– Only bowler with 300 Test, 200 ODI and 100 T20I wickets
– Only five players have hit more Test sixes
– No one has more Test runs at a higher strike rate

Tim Southee will retire from Tests after the England series as a New Zealand great 🇳🇿

🤝 @kiwiexperience pic.twitter.com/RZgGbugd9l

— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) November 24, 2024

There is no doubt that despite his recent decline in threat, he is a true great of New Zealand cricket. Over a 17-year Test career, Southee has taken 389 wickets, only fewer than Richard Hadlee, New Zealand’s indomitable undisputed greatest seamer of all time. Those are more wickets and more five-fors than his new-ball companion for over a decade, Trent Boult, and combining his wickets across formats makes him New Zealand’s most prolific all-round bowler.

Top class from Tim Southee 👏#NZvENG pic.twitter.com/WkE0NlW0ld

— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) February 27, 2023

But interwoven with those stats is the more important legacy of Southee’s career. As New Zealand ascended to the top of the world rankings and to World Test Championship glory, Southee was the glue that held their seam attack together, often putting in the hard yards and background spells to allow his teammates to take the headlines. Since his debut in 2008, it’s been Southee, Boult and Wagner who have dominated New Zealand’s attack, complimenting each other and forming the basis of consistency needed to become world-beaters. Wagner’s unfathomable stamina, Southee’s persistence and Boult’s fire made them among the most doggedly successful attacks in the world - the left-right arm partnership between Boult and Southee, generating extreme movement combined with accuracy on full, tempting lines, was New Zealand’s most iconic ever.

There were times when Southee was capable of stealing that limelight for himself. The nine wickets he took in the match against India in 2020 as New Zealand battered them in front of home crowds. The six-for at Lord’s against England as they geared up for the World Test Championship final.

But, with that being said, there are few kinks in his overall record that keep him on that second rung below Hadlee, and the greatest pacers of his era. New Zealand’s record in Australia over the course of Southee’s career is poor, and Southee’s (an average of 40 from nine Tests) goes along with that either as causation, result or somewhere in between.

On the flip side, his record in Asia is outstanding, particularly for a seamer of his style. Across 21 Tests in the sub-continent, Southee took 63 wickets at 28, a record bettered by only a handful of visiting quicks in recent years.

The image of Southee on his farewell tour does little to mitigate those numbers that keep him in that position. But where he ranks in New Zealand’s history cannot be judged on those numbers alone or how he walks off into the sunset. He was more than simply a cog in New Zealand’s greatest ever machine, take him out of it, and that machine would not have functioned, and New Zealand would have lost one of their best.

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