Jacobs is no stranger to international cricket, he made his debut for the Black Caps in the shorter forms on the Zimbabwe tri-series in July, after a tour of South Africa with the national A side.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing part of the New Zealand A group, and getting a little bit of experience overseas with that group, was really fun for me, and to be able to do it in red ball cricket and white ball cricket was awesome, and that\u2019s hopefully just a stepping stone into what the future holds.\u201d<\/p>\n
In seven innings of this summer\u2019s Plunket Shield, Jacobs is fifth on the run scorer\u2019s chart with 378 runs at an average of 54 and a Bazball-esque strike rate of 81.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I\u2019m playing my best cricket, I\u2019m always looking to score first – I\u2019m trying to be proactive,\u201d Jacobs said.<\/p>\n
He is clear on his aspirations.<\/p>\n
Bevon Jacobs celebrates his century for Auckland against Central Districts. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
\u201cTest cricket is obviously something that I want to achieve one day. <\/p>\n
\u201cOver the last few years, I\u2019ve been trying to put that at the forefront of my mind, red ball cricket is still the pinnacle and playing red ball cricket for NZ is still very much a goal. <\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully one day I can reach that level, three formats for NZ is definitely a major goal of mine.\u201d <\/p>\n
His first class career is in its infancy with nine matches but Jacobs, along with Canterbury\u2019s Rhys Mariu and Wellington\u2019s Tim Robinson, are the prospective leading lights for the next generation of Kiwi batters. <\/p>\n
And Jacobs says honing his technique in first class cricket provides the sound base from which his white ball batting stems from. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want to have a good base for white ball cricket, it comes from red ball cricket. <\/p>\n
\u201cI use that strong base and implement that into my white ball, because I think that\u2019s what makes white ball more successful \u2013 you can use that strong base and then the only thing that you\u2019re doing extra is hitting over the top. <\/p>\n
\u201cI can still use technique to try and clear the rope rather than trying to bludgeon it and I think a strong technical base is the best start and the best way to train that is through red ball cricket \u2013 I don\u2019t want to get pigeon-holed into a role.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Black Cap dream burns bright, but Jacobs knows he cannot worry about matters outside his control. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it\u2019s just about doing the best I can and keep going for Auckland, and hopefully selection down the road can look after itself. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe end goal for any domestic player [is] to play for NZ and represent NZ. If that does happen at the end of the day, then, that\u2019s something I\u2019ll take in my stride when it happens \u2013 the main focus for me is there\u2019s always Auckland first, and then if I get the privilege to play for New Zealand, then tackle that when it happens.\u201d <\/p>\n
The next 12 months for test cricket is headlined by a three-test tour of England and then four tests in Australia next summer, the first time NZ will play a series longer than three tests since 1999. <\/p>\n
It is about not getting distracted by the task at hand \u2013 scoring runs for Auckland.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more I play the more I can learn \u2013 I\u2019m going to keep trying to put my name in the hat so I can get into those conditions. And let\u2019s see what the winter holds for the year following.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely something, you look at as a player, and you look to the future and, it\u2019d be something pretty special to be a part of, and if I do manage to get into the side in the future … then that\u2019ll be a privilege.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jacobs is no stranger to international cricket, he made his debut for the Black Caps in the shorter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[9092,89,51,44485,1558,117156,7022,4250,11231,110080,3043,42574,1121,92081,6119,29467,679,305,28523,104,117157,1446,111,139,69,3547,15556,1963,316,213,765,46849,165,3807,102],"class_list":["post-185694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-against","tag-attack","tag-auckland","tag-batter","tag-been","tag-bevon","tag-black","tag-blood","tag-boost","tag-bowling","tag-call","tag-caps","tag-case","tag-depth","tag-faces","tag-familiar","tag-forced","tag-have","tag-indies","tag-injuries","tag-jacobs","tag-making","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-plunket","tag-runs","tag-series","tag-shield","tag-sports","tag-test","tag-tested","tag-their","tag-west","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}