Home Comforts

By Aiden McLaughlin

Daryl Mitchell has packed a lot of cricket and travel into the last 12 months, but on the eve of a T20 Tri Series in Christchurch, involving the Blackcaps, Bangladesh and Pakistan, he has the luxury of being able to base himself at home.

“After a long winter away it’s nice to sleep in your own bed and spend a bit more time with the family,” says Mitchell.

A T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates last October and November was followed quickly by a white and red ball tour of India to close out the year, before home assignments against Bangladesh and South Africa in early 2021. From there, Mitchell joined compatriots Trent Boult and Jimmy Neesham at the Rajasthan Royals for his first season in the IPL, before heading straight over to England for a three-test series against a rejuvenated home side in June. After that, he headed off for white ball internationals in Ireland, Scotland, the Netherlands and West Indies and then a Chappell-Hadlee series in Cairns last month.

“I guess that’s just the nature of being an international cricketer at the moment. With [the] IPL and a big stint with New Zealand away in the winter it’s obviously very busy,” he says.

“It was really cool to be part of my first IPL and to be with Rajasthan and to go through and just get pipped off at the final [where they lost to the Gujarat Titans]. To go deep into the comp and get that experience in different conditions and learn off some world class players, I definitely took a lot from that group.”

Christchurch is now not only home to Mitchell, his wife Amy and their daughters Addison and Lily, but it’s where he plays his domestic cricket, having moved from Northern Districts to Canterbury for the 2020-21 domestic season.

“I look back now and I’m very grateful to have been part of Northern Districts for a number of years as a young player growing up,” says Mitchell.

“[It was great] to be able to move to Christchurch and be part of a group that is a very strong domestic team, but for me it was my family, living here; to be able to go to work each day and come home to be a dad at night was really important and I think that’s played a massive role in allowing me to get better as a player, knowing that I can go to work and get better each day and then come home and not have to worry about being stuck in hotels or other things. I think that’s been a massive part, as well as going to a new environment and having to fit in with a new group.”

In the middle of 2022, Mitchell had statisticians working overtime with his performances against England. He became the first player in Test history to score a century in all three Tests of a three-Test series played away from home. His 121 at Lords, 190 at Trent Bridge and 109 at Headingley contributed to a total of 538 runs, the highest by a New Zealander in a series against England. He also became just the fifth Blackcaps player to score tons in three successive tests.

“I guess when you’re in the middle of it, you’re not really thinking too far ahead; you just want to go about doing your job for your team and your country,” Mitchell says.

“I look back now and I’m really proud of the last few months, especially around the test match stuff. It was a great experience and I had my family over there with us. It was really cool for them to be part of that month-and-a-bit test tour. Although the [test series] result of three-nil doesn’t sound too great, I think we were right in each test match up until day five, and it took some pretty special knocks from some of those English players to win those tests.”

With Ross Taylor having retired from the Test arena earlier in 2022, there was also a gap at first slip, which Mitchell was happy to step into.

“I’ve fielded in the slips my whole career in domestic cricket at first and second slip, so for me, it’s somewhere that I enjoy being,” he says.

“Obviously, the UK tour brought some challenges with the Duke ball and it probably moves a bit differently to what we’re used to with the Kookaburra here in New Zealand. I enjoy it and I’m blessed with pretty big hands so I might as well use them for something.”

Those hands are very much available to bowl with as well. In his 12 tests to date, he’s bowled a total of 63.1 overs with two wickets to his name. In 10 ODI’s he’s bowled just nine overs, with a solitary wicket coming against Scotland at the end of July this year. In 35 T20I’s, he’s had 13.5 overs, taking seven wickets.

“It’s something I’m constantly working on. I always strive to be that all-rounder and keep trying to work on my bowling and I’m available if the captain needs me,” he says.

“I guess we’re very lucky in our country, usually, especially in test cricket, that we’ve got four world class seamers bowling in the game. My job is just to hold up an end and give the guys a bit of a break when I do get a chance. I love my bowling and it brings out the competitiveness in me and hopefully I get more chances in the future.”

Another busy period of international cricket for Mitchell and his teammates gets underway this weekend, as the Tri-Series kicks off at Hagley Oval on Friday afternoon, with the opening match between Bangladesh and Pakistan. The Blackcaps play Pakistan on Saturday evening and Bangladesh on Sunday evening before facing the same opposition respectively, again, on Wednesday and Thursday next week. After six round-robin matches in seven days, the top two sides will meet in a final next Friday afternoon.

The day after the final, the Blackcaps will fly from Christchurch to Australia for the T20 World Cup, with their first of five pool matches coming against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground on October 22.

“I think the strength of our Blackcaps group is that we probably don’t make things bigger than what they are, nor do we look too far ahead,” says Mitchell.

“We’ve got a really exciting period here in the next week and a bit and I guess to get some momentum as a group and nail down the key roles that each guy has to play within this team.”

“For us, obviously there is a World Cup in a few weeks time, which we’re really excited about, but [it’s about] just taking each little step as we go and keep looking at trying to get better and win those little moments that will create habits leading into a pretty big month after that.”

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