he appeared to supplant Young as the spare batter <\/a>in the Black Caps\u2019 test ranks when the squad to tour England was named, it\u2019s hard to not see a world where he\u2019s named at No 3 at the toss on Wednesday night (NZT).<\/p>\nLonger term, though, what happens at No 3 is a bit murkier \u2013 if Nicholls can\u2019t take that chance straight away.<\/p>\n
While Williamson will go down in history as the best to ever mark guard for New Zealand, the reality is that Ravindra has been this side\u2019s most important batter for about 18 months now.<\/p>\n
If this were 2006 as opposed to 2026, Ravindra would be at short odds to move one place up the order and take the reins as the Black Caps\u2019 premier batter.<\/p>\n
But cricket has changed, there are few countries who play their best batter at No 3 in the way they once did. Australia\u2019s Steve Smith and England\u2019s Joe Root both occupy No 4, as did India\u2019s Virat Kohli before he retired from tests last year.<\/p>\n
![\"Rachin]()
Rachin Ravindra has arguably been New Zealand’s most important batter for the past 18 months. Photo \/ Nick Elliott \/ Photosport <\/p>\n
Furthermore, Ravindra moving to No 4 solved the problem of how the Black Caps replaced Ross Taylor \u2013 three years after he retired. While Ravindra moving up the order might solve one problem, there\u2019s a real chance it creates another, one spot down.<\/p>\n
So who, then, could do the job? While the pair of Canterbury\u2019s Rhys Mariu and Curtis Heaphy are far and away the best young players on New Zealand\u2019s domestic scene, both are openers and might struggle to adapt to the mental demands of No 3.<\/p>\n
There is, though, one very qualified option already in the Black Caps\u2019 ranks \u2013 Devon Conway.<\/p>\n
Even though the 34-year-old has found a home at the top of the New Zealand order, No 3 is where he made his name for Wellington. For four years, while he waited to become eligible for New Zealand after moving from South Africa, Conway terrorised bowlers at domestic level and was rushed into international cricket at the earliest opportunity.<\/p>\n
So much so, he was earmarked as the one to replace Taylor, before Young\u2019s inability to take his chance at the top triggered a reshuffle. From an admittedly small sample size of five tests, Conway averages 60.75 at No 3, with two of his seven centuries scored there.<\/p>\n
Moving Conway down to No 3 will allow for one of Heaphy or Mariu to come in at the top of the order, with those two almost certain to be New Zealand\u2019s opening pair once captain Tom Latham also calls time.<\/p>\n
Considering Ravindra is the only member of this Black Caps\u2019 batting unit under the age of 30, injecting youth over the coming years will happen whether selectors are rushed or not.<\/p>\n
But if the question for the Black Caps is \u201chow can Kane Williamson be replaced?\u201d the simple answer is that he genuinely can\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Black Caps expected second test lineup: 1. Tom Latham (c), 2. Devon Conway, 3. Henry Nicholls, 4. Rachin Ravindra, 5. Daryl Mitchell, 6. Tom Blundell (wk), 7. Glenn Phillips, 8. Nathan Smith, 9. Kyle Jamieson, 10. Matt Henry, 11. Will O\u2019Rourke<\/p>\n
Alex Powell<\/a> is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite Will Young being recalled into the squad to fill the hole Williamson vacated, it will be Henry…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[241677,74,28246,7022,42574,307,1634,221,26502,5158,117,111,43,139,69,4482,2022,4504,61,4524,72725,80],"class_list":["post-480551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-adage","tag-after","tag-begin","tag-black","tag-caps","tag-dont","tag-england","tag-how","tag-kane","tag-man","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-replace","tag-sport","tag-theres","tag-to","tag-want","tag-williamson","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480551","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=480551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}