Black Caps star Rachin Ravindra has big T20I future despite Cup batting struggles: Walter

Wednesday, 11 March 2026

Black Caps coach Rob Walter feels criticism of Rachin Ravindra’s batting return at the T20 World Cup is a little unfair.

Ravindra excelled with his left-arm spin as New Zealand made the final of the tournament before being comprehensively outplayed by hosts India in Ahmedabad on Monday.

But the left-handed No.3 batter made just 129 runs, with an average of 25.80 at a Strike Rate of 134.37. That’s slightly above his T20I career batting average of just 20.51 (SR 135.29).

The 26-year-old averages 41.88 in ODIs and 47.68 in tests, and in the NZ player ratings for the tournament in The Post, Ravindra’s batting in the format was rated as ‘a strange disappointment. Maybe No3 is not his spot in this format.”

But Walter felt questions over his batting in the tournament was “probably a little bit unfair”.

“I do feel like he made some valuable contributions along the way with the bat in a couple of our victories.

“And at the same breath, like with those openers [Finn Allen and Tim Seifert] getting off to a start, you come in and your sort of goal is to maintain the momentum there,” Walter said.

“I mean, it's a high-risk game. So you understand that there's gonna be a lot of failure mixed in with some success along the way.”

Ravindra was NZ’s leading wicket-taker at the Cup, with 12 wickets at an Economy Rate of 7.84 and an average of 12.41.

“As I said at the start of the tournament, people underestimate the all-around value of Rachin in the team.

“The conditions fed into his bowling and him being a real role player from a bowling point of view. From a batting side of things, he was either delivering with the bat or not using up too many deliveries at that number three position.

“He'll become more and more consistent in a game that is fraught with inconsistency, but no doubt that his game is improving all the time and that will continue to happen.”

Walter said he felt the team had played well when they needed to but was “pretty disappointed we didn't play our best cricket in the final”.

‘I suppose it's a classic bittersweet moment.

“I don't think you can lose a game and not reflect on what you may have done differently, but it's always hindsight.”

New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner won the toss and chose to bowl, only to see India hammer 255-5 from their 20 overs. Off-spinner Cole McConchie, who had taken two wickets in his only over in the semifinal win over South Africa, was left out of the side, with pace bowler Jacob Duffy replacing him.

Duffy bowled three overs in the final and conceded 42 runs without taking a wicket.

‘I think the most important thing beforehand is making the decisions for the right reasons, having done all our prep and our delving into different things around our decision making.

“I don't think you can spend too much time dwelling on that, other than obviously learning and growing and getting better, and just reflecting on what we might have done and where we can edge ourselves forward as a team.”

In the latter stages of the World Cup, there were six scores of more than 200 and two other tallies that almost reached that mark by teams which successfully chased.

Walter said the school of thought that T20Is were becoming too much of a batters’ game depended on what you view as entertainment.

“It seems to be the trend around the world that runs are the things that people want to see.

‘I believe you still want to have an even contest.

“I think what it is doing is obviously putting pressure on the bowling units and bowlers to develop different skill sets. The batting progression in terms of skills and execution is going through the roof and very quickly. So it's up to the bowling side of things to actually increase the development and the training of our skills.

“It is tough - the bats are very good. The guys obviously practice hitting the ball far, and when the pitches give not much to the bowlers, it does make it very tough.

“Ultimately, if that's the way the game's going, then the onus is obviously on the bowlers to develop their skills and develop them quickly. Otherwise, it's not gonna be too long before we see scores in excess of 250 regularly, like we saw in the latter stages of the tournament.”