The BJ Watling way: Of simplistic approach and mind-blowing exploits
Far away from the contortions of the breakneck world, there’s a man smiling through his achievements. Smiling, not because of his accomplishments but, because he is not swayed by them.
When the world was still talking about the 2019 World Cup Final, New Zealand was playing Test cricket in Sri Lanka at the same time as the Ashes. Quite naturally, as it happens with New Zealand cricket and its flagbearers, the series went unnoticed. If there had to be a perfect victim of such ignorance, as you’ve guessed, it’s BJ Watling. The cricketer with the highest batting average among wicket-keeper batsmen since 2015 (min 1000 runs and 30 innings), Watling scored a splendid 77 in the second innings of the first Test at Galle, followed by an unbeaten 105 in Colombo.
After the right-handed gloveman earned the Man of the series title, he flew down to England for a county stint with Durham. After having concluded the stint with flying colours, Watling was kind enough to lend his time and speak to us.
Talking about his county assignment, he said, “I had a great time over there. Obviously knew James Franklin from playing with him, a few years ago, for New Zealand and playing against him in Wellington. It was a good challenge for me to go into a new environment and try and perform my best in different conditions in England. So I thoroughly enjoyed my time over there,” Watling told SportsCafe in an exclusive chat.
“Want to play as much cricket as possible”
With the two-match Test series against England at home coming up, Watling believes the stint with Durham did help him. “Yeah, I think it did. It was good to obviously score some runs in Sri Lanka. And it was an opportunity to go over there and put away the keeping gloves for a couple of weeks and really just focus on my batting for a while, which was really nice just to keep that flow going and obviously try to learn in different conditions and different style of cricket,” Watling said.
Watling, who is not a part of the limited-overs setup and obviously did not play a part in the World Cup, has to wait for Test cricket play for the Black Caps. When asked how he copes with the gaps, he said, ”I don’t mind having those gaps but I also don’t want them to be long. I got a 2-year old boy at home and it is nice to spend some time with your family in the winters but yeah I think you obviously want to play as much cricket as possible but I do try and enjoy my time away from it and try relaxing and getting fit for my next assignment.”
“It could be quite draining game sometimes. So just getting away from the games sometimes definitely helps me anyway. I enjoy getting away from it and trying to refresh, I guess,” he added.
The wicketkeeping mantra with BJ Watling.
When it comes to having confidence in someone from the team, Kane Williamson trusts no one else more than his deputy in Tests. Watling did joke about it though. “I can guarantee he doesn’t trust me when it comes to reviews.”
But his career has been all about keeping the faith and moving ahead with it. Between 2009 and 2012, he played only eight Tests - the first six as a specialist batsman - before settling into the role a full-time wicketkeeper in the longest format in 2013.
“I used to keep throughout school and throughout U-19 for New Zealand and my first 5-6 years for Northern district were as an opening batter and so I put the gloves away for a little while. But then the opportunity popped up to obviously have a crack and play for New Zealand as wicketkeeper. So yeah, I started working on that [wicket keeping] hard again and managed to do it for a few years."
As Watling did admit it was “a different challenge batting at 6 and 7 compared to opening in Test cricket”, it was the then coach John Wright who suggested that he should keep working on his wicket-keeping and try to push for a spot in the Test and one-day sides.
“So that’s basically where it started from. I definitely enjoyed keeping. I have more of a passion for batting but I have enjoyed my years of keeping and it’s a big challenge trying to concentrate for long periods of time and then switch that concentration to batting,” he said.
During the Ashes, Australia skipper Tim Paine had said that a wicketkeeper has an advantage as a skipper. But Watling believes that it’s a rather “tough job” with a “lot of mental thought obviously going on for the skipper”. [In the case of Tim Paine] “He obviously has to think about the next player as well as the ball that is currently coming to him, so it definitely is a challenge. I guess the advantage is you get to see what the ball is doing off the wicket, the pace of the wicket and how much it is swinging. You get some decent field for how things might play up. But I can see it being very challenging, skippering and being a wicketkeeper,” opined Watling.
Unfazed by records
“I don’t really think about that [being the best in business] too much to be fair. My main concern is to definitely try play for New Zealand as long as possible and do the best in the situations that I am put in,” Watling asserted.
"But I definitely look up to Quinton de Kock. He is a fantastic player and he has obviously been a gun keeper for a long period of time too now. And I look around the world and there are obviously some quality keepers going around who also score loads of runs so I don’t really challenge myself against them. I just make sure I do what is required of me from my team.”
Keeping in the subcontinent
Speaking of the challenges of keeping in the subcontinent, Watling said, “Yes It’s definitely a challenge, coming from New Zealand where we don’t get as much turn and as much bounce or variable bounce. So that’s the challenge for us when we go to the subcontinent to obviously stand up to the stumps a lot and deal with a turning and bouncing ball or a turning and a turning ball staying low. Those are the two main challenges.”
His experience though was “quite comfortable” as “working out different methods to counter” played out well for him. “And obviously watching the likes of MS Dhoni go about his work when he is standing up to the spinners is something you strive to do. You just look at a couple of key positions he gets into and you might try and implement those in your game,” Watling added.
“One series at a time”
At 34, the South Africa-born cricketer is taking it “series by series” and has no foreseeable plans of retirement. “It’s kind of a series by series thing for me to be honest. I think I will just keep trying to play the best cricket I can and keep trying to perform and I think I will know the right time to give it away,” Watling revealed.
As Ross Taylor said that the camaraderie of the team is the best he has ever seen, Watling further attests the same. “I cannot really disagree with him too much. I think over a long period of time with this sort of group we have played a lot of cricket together and we have shared a lot of memories along the way so yeah it is definitely a pretty close-knit group and you obviously look forward to playing together and playing Test matches.”
Recalling a “very special day” in Test cricket, Watling shared his experience batting with ‘Baz’ when the former captain scored his 300 against India. “A lot of people flocked in to watch it. It was pretty special for NZ cricket. I think what made it so special was that we managed to pull ourselves out of a tricky situation and win that series by drawing that game. It is always important that as a team we try to win test matches but also try win test series and winning that series was a very special series to end up winning,” Watling shared.
Finally, our main man did speak about the importance of playing more Test cricket. With Kane Williamson coming back from his hip injury, New Zealand would want to turn their fate around after having lost the T20I series by 2-3. The hosts will play two Tests against England, starting from November 21.
“Yeah, I mean it would be ideal to play a lot more Test cricket. It is probably the most challenging format and it is as it is. The Test championship coming up puts a nice bit of bonus on the Test matches and Test series that we play. Even though the contest with England won’t be a part of the Championship, I am looking forward to it. And eventually, want to see what this Test championship evolves into,” Watling signed off.
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