Devon Conway, New Zealand’s Wicketkeeper Batsman, expressed that he is feeling “great” about his return to the national T20 team, as he has not participated since the last T20 World Cup which happened more than a year ago. Conway didn’t accept the central contract and he was not included in the team for the Zimbabwe tour, but due to Finn Allen’s foot injury he was called to join the team and he is really satisfied to serve his national team again.
“It’s great to be back in this environment. It’s been a while, so just getting the call-up to come back into the squad is fantastic,” he said at the post-match press conference. “Obviously Finn Allen’s injury is unfortunate but for me it’s nice to get that opportunity to be with the squad again and see a couple of faces who I haven’t seen in a long period of time. And it was nice to contribute today to the win.”
Conway re-joined his team on July 18, 2025, making his return with the unbeaten half century 59 off 40 balls, having an amazing partnership with Rachlin Ravindra, also Daryl Mitchel gave his best performance, collectively making a 8 wickets victory easy for New Zealand against Zimbabwe. And as a result, they are on top of the tri-series points table. South Africa, New Zealand and Zimbabwe are playing this series.
“There was a lot of steep bounce in the surface, which was a little bit unexpected, but we adjusted and thankfully we only had to chase 121 and managed to get across the line,” he said. “With the new ball, especially their left-armed [Ngarava] was a massive challenge for us as batters. They bashed that wicket really hard and got a lot of steep bounce out of it, so it made it pretty hard for us batters early.”
A fresh pitch was made for this match, before the last two fixtures at the start of the week where the ball stuck in the wickets. There are still four more games remaining before the final match, where New Zealand seems confident to play in those games after winning the two.
On Tuesday, South Africa and New Zealand will be playing against each other, where Conway should be ready to face Kwena Maphaka, the young South African left-arm seamer, against whom Conway top-edged in the first match.
Rob Walter will be coaching New Zealand’s team in all three formats for next three years which also includes T20 and ODI World Cups, he left his job as white-ball coach of South Africa, however it’s first experience of Conway to work under his coaching, also he is satisfied with his teachings.
“It’s just been a couple of days we’ve been with him but his positive mind-set around T20 cricket has been nice and clear for us batters,” Conway said. “He’s brought positive energy and a slightly new way of thinking so it’s nice to have him on board and experimenting as to how he operates as the head coach.”
