“Look, even with Tim and Trent there, we sort of like to think of ourselves as a pack,” Ferguson said. “So, we have leaders in it and at the same time, everyone’s voice is very much heard and a big thing of the young players coming through is that their voice needs to be heard too and they see the game and play the game differently. For sure, I’ve had a bit more experience here and naturally, sort of relaying that information to them is important.”
Ferguson is used to playing this leadership role for Auckland in domestic cricket and the transition into international cricket has been fairly smooth, though New Zealand’s results on this tour might suggest otherwise.
“Even Blair Tickner, he’s come here and done exceptionally well and understood the conditions from an A series he played here,” Ferguson said. “He’s had experience and he’s brought that into this series – both the ODIs and T20s – and he’s offering a lot of good information and clarity. I think that’s probably a huge positive for the Black Caps where everyone gets a say, and you know we are a collective trying to win the game and certainly, it’s nice to have some young bowlers coming through and getting that opportunity and experience.”
Ferguson’s mentorship of the younger bowlers and exposure to Indian conditions is among the takeaways for New Zealand in their approach to the ODI World Cup in the country in October-November, but their immediate focus is to seal a rare bilateral series victory in India. Apart from a one-off T20I in 2012, the visitors have not won a bilateral series of any format in the country.
“There’s a lot of experience and learnings to take from a series and obviously the Indian side is playing so well in ODI cricket at the moment and T20 as well,” Ferguson said. “So, certainly coming here and touring – I’ve been here many times before – but every time I come, I learn something new and it’s something, as a group, we can review how this tour went and take learnings certainly through to the World Cup in six months’ time. But at this stage, it’s very much a focus on tomorrow night. We’re a team that sort of rolls game by game, series by series; so the focus is very much for tomorrow.”
Ferguson: Hardik’s captaincy is similar to Williamson’s
“[I] hold him in a very high regard,” Ferguson said. “Certainly, from day one, playing underneath him at Gujarat, he’s a clear leader within the group and demands the audience very quickly, but at the same time [he’s] similar to Kane [Williamson] in a sense that he has time for everyone in the group. So, as you can see, he has done well with India and his body language with the group has been fantastic and I think he’s an exceptional leader for the country. I certainly enjoyed my time playing underneath him.”
