Youngsters Dominate - Wellington Contracts Review 2023/24

Wellington have announced their contracts for the 2023/24 season and four new names appear on the list. Muhammad Abbas, Nick Greenwood, James Hartshorn and Gareth Severin have all received contracts for the first time. Jakob Bhula, Devan Vishvaka, Luke Georgeson, Ollie Newton, and Finn Allen all drop off the contracts list due to various reasons.

The loss of Finn Allen to Auckland will be huge for the Wellington batting lineup. Whilst, Allen wasn’t the best in the First Class format for Wellington over the years, only playing eight games and scoring 226 runs across the eight games. In the List A format he scored 579 runs @36.18 and he did hold the record for the joint fastest List A 100 with it coming from 50 balls. The format that Allen impressed the most in was the T20 format. He scored 924 across the three seasons in the 25 games he played. He had a memorable 2020/21 season, where he scored 512 @56.88 and this led to a maiden Blackcaps call up. Allen will definitely be missed in the short format games, and he will be hard to replace. 24 year old Luke Georgeson will also be missed by the Wellington side for the 2023/24 summer. Having lost Allen, Georgeson could have found himself thrown into the opening slot but has instead decided to move to Otago. Georgeson played 3 Super Smash matches in the 2021/22 season and scored 31 runs across three innings, with a high score of 30. In the 2022/23 season, Georgeson played in 6 List A matches scoring 161 runs @26.83 and had a high score of 54. Georgeson played in seven first class matches last summer and scored 213 runs @15.21. Whilst these stats might show that he didn’t perform well, he does have a lot of talent as he is able bat anywhere from positions 1-6 and is also handy with the ball. Another player who may come as a surprise to not receive a contract is Ollie Newton, but that is due to the fact he didn’t want to take one up for this season. Newton only appeared in one first class game last summer, taking five wickets in the game. In the List A format he picked up 11 wickets across the 9 games he played, with best figures of 6/33. In the T20 format he played 5 games and took only four wickets, going at an economy of 9.03. This season, there were two youngsters who were unlucky to miss out on making the contracted list. The first of those is Jakob Bhula. He had a poor season last summer. In his 2 first class games he only scored 13 runs @3.25, in the List A format he scored 29 runs across two games and in the T20 format he scored 44 runs in three games. This shows us that due to the poor performances he has lost out on a contract with Wellington possibly looking for young players, who also performed well. Expect to see Bhula play in a couple of List A games, if Wellington lose players to the Blackcaps however. Devan Vishvaka is another young player to miss out on a contract. After what looked to be a promising season in 2021/22, Vishvaka was offered a contract last summer. He played in two first class matches, but couldn’t fire, only making 33 runs in the four innings. He made his debut in both the List A and T20 formats. In the Dream 11 Super Smash, he played four games, scoring 11 runs @2.75. Even though Vishvaka performed poorly in the T20 and First Class format, he did score 45 runs in his one and only List A game. With no Allen or Georgeson, and a very high likelihood that they will not see much of Devon Conway or Tom Blundell, you may see Vishvaka get the odd opportunity in the List A format.

Muhammad Abbas, is one of the newly contracted players for Wellington. Whilst he only played five games, he scored 453 runs @50.33 and a high score of 130. His promotion to the Wellington side came off a great performance for the Wellington U19s side, where he starred with both bat and ball. It will be a big season for Abbas, as he will be hoping to make his debut in the T20 and List A format. Nick Greenwood has also found himself with a first time contract for Wellington. Greenwood has not just represented Wellington, but has also played ODIs and T20Is for Jersey. Greenwood only played in one game for Wellington last summer, but scored 54 runs across the two innings, making 45 runs in the second innings, a knock which included 5 fours. Gareth Severin is another player that brings limited experience to the Wellington side. He only played three games, but scored 294 runs across six innings, which included a near game winning knock against Northern Districts, scoring 196. Like Abbas, Severin will be looking to make his debut in the T20 and List A formats this summer. James Hartshorn has been offered a contract, and it looks like he will be brought in to replace Newton. Hartshorn has played 6 first matches over two seasons for the Wellington side. He took 9 wickets last summer with a best of 3/63. He also appeared in four one day games in the 2020/21 season, where he took 2 wickets.

Predicted Wellington Lineups: Plunket Shield:

1. Rachin Ravindra

2. Nick Kelly - Captain

3. Troy Johnson/Devon Conway

4. Gareth Severin/Michael Bracewell

5. Muhammad Abbas

6. Callum McLachlan/Tom Blundell - Wicketkeeper

7. Nathan Smith

8. Logan van Beek

9. Ben Sears

10. Michael Snedden/Adam Milne

11. Iain McPeake

Ford Trophy:

1. Rachin Ravindra

2. Nick Kelly

3. Troy Johnson - Captain

4. Tim Robinson/Devon Conway

5. Nick Greenwood/Michael Bracewell

6. Muhammad Abbas

7. Callum McLachlan/Tom Blundell - Wicketkeeper

8. Nathan Smith

9. Logan van Beek

10. Peter Younghusband/Adam Milne

11. Ben Sears

Super Smash:

1. Rachin Ravindra

2. Nick Kelly

3. Troy Johnson

4. Nick Greenwood

5. Gareth Severin

6. Muhammad Abbas

7. Nathan Smith

8. Callum McLachlan - Wicketkeeper

9. Logan van Beek

10. Peter Younghusband - Captain

11. Ben Sears/Adam Milne