Will Young, the reserve who stole the show: 'You've got to be prepared to bat anywhere in the top five'
New Zealand’s player of the series talks about making the best of extreme conditions, using his time in the reserves to prepare, and being part of the side’s biggest success
Interview by Deivarayan Muthu07-Nov-20243:25
‘Hopefully what we’ve achieved can inspire young kids watching at home’
Will Young has spent much of his international career as a reserve batter and it was supposed to be no different when New Zealand began their six-Test subcontinent expedition this year. After the one-off match against Afghanistan was called off without a ball being bowled, Young ran the drinks in Sri Lanka. But after an injury to Kane Williamson, Young seamlessly slotted into the No. 3 role and ran the show with the bat against India in India. He dovetailed attacking strokes into his defence beautifully, including the sweep and reverse sweep, and was the top scorer for his side, with 244 runs. It earned him the Player-of-the-Series award as New Zealand completed a near-unthinkable 3-0 whitewash of India. Young spoke about how he prepared for the India tour, despite not being a certain starter, and countered spin in conditions that were extreme at various stagesIt’s been a few days since the epic 3-0 series win against India. Has it sunk in for you?
Yeah, I think it slowly is. We’ve got time to obviously celebrate with the boys and the support staff after the win, but to check your phone and see the messages and the love and support that’s come from back home has been incredible. So yeah, it’s certainly starting to sink in. Our time here has come to an end, unfortunately. It’s been an incredible few weeks, but now on to new things or having a bit of a rest.After the Pune Test, Glenn Phillips said there was some rowdy singing in the team bus. What were the post-match celebrations like in Pune and Mumbai?
Yes, the bus ride was fun, especially after the Pune Test, when it was longer from the ground to the hotel. GP [Glenn Phillips] was singing and dancing up and down the aisle. The celebrations continued when we got to the hotel and we just enjoyed each other’s company. Obviously a few speeches from the coach and captain and things like that. But it’s starting to sink in. I think when you relax and have a drink with your team-mates, that’s when you start to really reflect on what we’ve just achieved. And those are really special times that we’ll remember for a long, long time.Related
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What was it like to have the trust of the team management to slot into that crucial No. 3 position, especially in conditions that were often extreme?
I think that’s the nature of being a reserve batsman: you’ve got to be prepared to bat anywhere in the top five. And obviously, No. 3 is a pivotal role. But you could argue that all batting positions in the top five are pivotal at different stages of the game. So I had to prepare in a way that I felt ready and confident to take the opportunity. And the lead-up to the tour was really good. We had some good camps in New Zealand before we came over [to the subcontinent].And then it was just on a game-by-game basis, assessing how Kane’s going back home. And obviously it didn’t improve enough for him to fly over. So it meant that I could play the whole series, which was really nice for me, personally.The accidental tourist: Will Young finished as New Zealand’s second-highest run scorer on their tour of India•Indranil Mukherjee/Getty ImagesWe also had a week in Noida [for the Afghanistan Test]. And although the outfield was really wet, we could still train on the block there. And then obviously, in Galle, there’s spinning conditions there as well. So I had a good amount of time in the nets, preparing and watching the guys go about their work and having conversations about what works and what doesn’t. You start to piece it all together. And by the time I came to India, I felt prepared to take on this opportunity.You went from facing James Anderson in swinging conditions in Southport to facing up to R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar on turners in India. Talk us through the prep that helped you adapt.
In that Lancashire game, Nathan Lyon also played, so it wasn’t a bad bowling attack. To be honest, it [success against spin] has been a long time in the making. We toured here in 2021 and we had a two-Test match series, in Kanpur and Mumbai, and the batting group that’s here is largely the same as the one three years ago.So I suppose if you look at it with a wider lens, you can say that we’ve been learning since then. There’s been lots of tours to the subcontinent, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and even some spinning surfaces at home at times. We were always keen to learn and adapt and grow as batsmen.I suppose leading up to this particular series and this particular chunk of six games in the subcontinent, it was really important that we got our heads around what does work and doesn’t work. And at times it is experimental and at times it’s backing your method and having the courage to do so for a long period of time. It’s just nice that it’s all come together, especially after the hurt of the Sri Lankan series. To put it all together on the biggest of stages here in India was really pleasing as a whole batting unit.You had Rangana Herath and Michael Bracewell bowl to you a fair bit in the Galle nets when you didn’t make it to the XI. How did those sessions benefit you in India?
Yeah, Rangana still loves bowling. He bowled a lot in the nets, not just to me but to a lot of the boys. And I guess because he’s so accurate, if you want to work on a particular shot, he can put it there for you.And he’s very complimentary and he gets around you when you get it right. Obviously Michael Bracewell – affectionately known as Beastie – he’s also a really handy bowler to face in the nets. And the conditions in Galle were nice to test out different styles of play and different methods.The final cut: Young hits the winning runs in the first Test in Bengaluru•BCCISo that was awesome to have, those couple of weeks with those guys, as well as the batting coach, Luke Ronchi, who was throwing a bit of offspin. Glenn Phillips is always keen to bowl. So there was plenty of guys to call upon and to get some volume in leading into the series.Was the sweep one of those shots you worked on during those sessions? You came away as New Zealand’s most prolific player of the sweep, including the reverse, in this series
Yes, as I said before, some of your training at times can be experimental. And I suppose the reverse sweep and the hard sweep in front of square is something that I’ve had to add to my locker.I thought it might come in handy at certain times over here, especially when conditions get gnarly and you don’t have the field that you want to bat against. You can take a risk to sweep in different ways so that the field changes, and then you might feel a little bit more comfortable. So yeah, it’s certainly been something I’ve been working on for a long, long time. And it’s nice for it to come off at times over here when it was needed.You also have another Sri Lankan connection: you worked with Mahela Jayawardene when he came to New Zealand to play for Central Stags. Do you often chat to him about your batting as well?
I haven’t spoken to Mahela in a long time now but back in my formative years, a younger, more impressionable self was playing with Mahela. It was in the T20 format. He came over for two full seasons and played with us. And he was just incredible.He scored a hell of a lot of runs. He loved playing golf and he loved talking batting. So myself and some other guys in the batting group got around him and just tried to pick his brains as much as we could. But yeah, just awesome to see a master at work.
How did you train on turning tracks in New Zealand before the India tour?
So in New Zealand, we train all over the country, and as I mentioned, before coming to the subcontinent, we had three camps. One was down in Canterbury. The other one was up in the Bay of Plenty. But where I live in Hawkes Bay, there’s also nets. The New Zealand A team were actually training there in preparation for a Bangladesh series, which unfortunately didn’t go ahead. But it meant that they wanted some turning tracks and me, living in the region, I could go in and use those surfaces once they [New Zealand A players] had finished with my local [Central Districts] coach Glenn Pocknall.Yeah, they basically just scarified the wicket. It didn’t have any grass on it. And he could throw offspin or get a bowler in. And again, it was pretty gnarly, but you sort of figure out what does and doesn’t work and figure out styles of play that might come in handy in the future.Nobody faced more balls than the 460 you did in this series. In conditions where the ball rags from one spot but also goes on straight from the same spot, how did you have so much faith in your defence?
Yeah, it’s really tough. At times it seems a little bit like a lottery. Some balls might turn, some might not. Obviously the Indian spinners are really, really crafty with their seam position and their wrist position and how the seam comes out, which can have an impact, and the pace of the ball as well can have an impact on how much it turns or doesn’t.But at the end of the day, I think you’ve got to be prepared to play and miss and to look a little bit ugly at times, as long as, say, for example, you cover the inside and you’re happy to get beaten on the outside edge or vice-versa.Again, I think it’s just assessing what bowler is bowling, what the conditions are like, what the field is, and sort of hedging your bets one way or the other, what you think might work at that particular time.Ravindra Jadeja got the better of Young twice in the series, but Young also took 62 runs off him•BCCIYou were playing a bit of cat-and-mouse with Jadeja. Besides hitting the sweep, you were prepared to step out to him, which messed with Rohit Sharma’s fields.
It was just this one particular passage of play [in Mumbai] where Jadeja had brought mid-off up. Most of the series he’d had him back because he was quite comfortable for the right-handers to try to push the ball into the off side and bring the slips into play. But this particular passage of play, Jadeja and Rohit had decided to bring mid-off up.And I just felt that if the ball was full enough, I could try to reach it and smother the spin and get it over the top straight. And I had a chat to Daryl Mitchell about it in between overs and he said, “Yeah, mate, just back yourself.”He said make sure you stay down through the shot or something along those lines. He’s obviously very good at it [hitting down the ground] himself. So when the opportunity arose, I took it and then the fielder went back and I could keep on playing from there.Your winning shot in Bengaluru had Phillips and Mitchell off their seats and celebrating animatedly. Can you describe that finish?
I think by that stage, the boys were actually a little bit angry at me () because the ball before that I hit over mid-on and I didn’t run. They thought it was going for four and they were already celebrating. They had to just calm it down when scores were level.It was a really special moment to hit those winning runs. A friend of mine messaged me and said, “New Zealand have won three Tests in India, but you’re the only New Zealander to have hit the winning runs because the other two times we bowled last.” So that was a cool little trivia question for the future, perhaps.Young on being called up repeatedly as a reserve: “If you get an opportunity to play international cricket, that’s incredibly special. And you’ll jump at the chance, whether you’re opening the batting or you’re in the middle order”•Getty ImagesBut it was a really special moment. And to share it with Rachin [Ravindra], who was obviously on fire that game. He batted brilliantly in that first innings to get his hundred. So did Tim Southee actually. That was a hell of a partnership with Rachin. But yeah, just to put the icing on the cake at the end there and hit the winning runs and having a good partnership with Devon [Conway] and Rachin was really, really special.Your reflex catch at short leg to dismiss Jadeja in the final innings was another crucial play. Is that among the best catches you’ve taken?
Yeah, it’s tough. I’ve done a little bit of short leg over my career, but I think I started moving away because I thought he [Jadeja] was going to hit it nicely. It was more self-protection initially. And then I realised that he edged it and got onto his pad and there’s a chance to catch it. So I just went for it. But I suppose it’s really important to stay low and try not to flinch just in case the ball does pop up like that, and you can be in a position to catch it.During this tour, New Zealand had some illness running through the camp. How did you overcome it to score twin fifties in Mumbai?
Yeah, it was my illness that actually came earlier in the tour. I was feeling a bit average for that Bangalore Test. And I think I was the first one to get sick. And a few of the boys throughout the tour picked up things and they were blaming me, which is probably fair (. But no, I think you just got to get on with it. You know, it’s Test-match cricket.You don’t feel 100% always and sometimes you’ve just got to box on and get through it. And the heat here, and the humidity in particular, was really challenging at times. But the boys got through it. You know, we put in the work leading into the series and it was nice to come through and largely unscathed from a physical point of view.You were also part of the golden group that won the inaugural World Test Championship in 2021. Which was the bigger personal achievement, the win in India or the WTC?
Yeah, the World Test Championship was the very start of my career and I was part of it, but I wasn’t playing very much. It was incredible to be part of and to soak it all in, and the way the New Zealand public got around us when we got home was just amazing. But to come over here and to beat India in India, which all teams around the world talk about being incredibly difficult – we managed to pull it off. So I think being part of it [the 3-0 series win] ranks right up there for me. And for New Zealand cricket in general, to be honest, it’s probably at the top of the tree.Young on the impact of New Zealand’s World Test Championship win: “We didn’t quite fathom how much it actually impacted everyone at home”•AFP/Getty ImagesWhen you were at New Plymouth Boys’ high school, you were clear that you wanted to play cricket for New Zealand. What kind of impact do you think this recent success of the Black Caps and White Ferns will have on the next generation?
There were some incredible stories from the World Test Championship mace tour that we held in New Zealand [in 2021]. Different players were involved in different parts of the country. And I remember the day or two that I was involved, there were queues down the street.We couldn’t actually get around and see everyone, but just to see the love and support that we had from home when at the time we were in quarantine. And we didn’t quite fathom how much it actually impacted everyone at home. And right now the trophy tour that the White Ferns are on, they’re doing the exact same thing. So I’m sure they’re inspiring the next generation of young girls and women to play the sport. And hopefully what we’ve done over here can inspire some young boys and guys watching at home too.Daryl Mitchell has his Black Cap jersey and his dad’s [John Mitchell’s] All Black jersey framed on his mantle. Where is this Player-of-the-Series trophy going to go in your home?
It felt a little bit funny at first, to be honest. I didn’t score a hundred, I was just consistent, really. So I guess the reward is an acknowledgement of consistency. But you look through the series and, not just with the bat but also with the ball, different guys stood up for both teams and bowled incredibly well. So I’m truly humbled to receive the award, but it’s nothing in comparison to what the team has achieved over here. The 3-0 is the main thing and I’m incredibly honoured and proud to be part of this group.I’m not at home enough to have a room to put everything in, but I think perhaps in the future when it’s all over, you can sort of reflect and I suppose reminisce on the good times. And if you’ve got a couple of awards and signed shirts and things like that, then yeah, I guess that’s cool. It’s the memories for me and the times with the guys in the dressing room and just representing New Zealand in general. That’s where the real pride comes from me.You might not start the next Test series at home against England. How do you deal with the uncertainty of being the reserve batter?
I don’t know. You play domestic cricket or just cricket in general leading up to getting selected for the Black Caps, and you might pigeonhole yourself as a certain type of player or you bat a certain number. But I think it doesn’t really matter at the end of the day. If you get an opportunity to play international cricket, that’s incredibly special.And you’ll jump at the chance, whether you’re opening the batting or you’re in the middle order. So I think you’ve just got to be really authentic to yourself and try to play the way that you know that you can play best, and you bring those qualities and attributes to the team, then you’ll play your best cricket and you’ll have an impact on the game. So that’s sort of what I keep telling myself is to be true to myself and just try and make the most of every opportunity when it comes along.