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Sport Nation
How to tune into Sport Nation'The pinnacle': Vettori prepared Aussies ready for Chappell-Hadlee showdown
Kieran Bingham • September 30th, 2025 12:01 pm
Daniel Vettori | Photo: Photosport
As the Blackcaps prepare to face Australia in a three-match T20 series at Bay Oval, there will be a familiar face on the visitors’ side of the boundary rope.
Former Blackcaps captain Daniel Vettori returns to the Bay, this time in his role as Australia's bowling coach, which he's held since 2022.
“The boys love coming to New Zealand. Vettori told Sport Nation’s Millsy & Guy.
“They expect me to know every cafe and restaurant in the Mount. I keep telling them that I don’t live here and I haven’t been here for a long time.”
The series carries more significance than just the Chappell-Hadlee rivalry. With Olympic qualification on the line, the stakes are higher.
“There’s the other layer you guys might not be aware of but there’s Olympic qualification involved in this, with only one team coming from Australasia,” Vettori said.
“I think in the backs of a lot of guys’ minds they want to know more about it but it’s certainly enticing at this stage.”
For players who specialise in the shortest format, this series becomes a key part of the international calendar.
“This becomes important because there’s not as much crossover of the teams, particularly between red ball and white ball,” Vettori said.
“This becomes the pinnacle for a lot of the guys. You think of a Tim David who just plays in this format - he has been so successful - to come here and try and compete for the Chappell-Hadlee really means something.”
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Vettori also offered a look ahead to conditions at Bay Oval and what players might expect from the surface.
“I see absolutely zero turn,” he said.
“I see a very good T20 wicket. A little bit like Eden Park but probably not quite as much pace.”
One player the Australians won’t have to face any time soon is emerging Blackcaps seamer Will O’Rourke, who is out with a stress fracture in his lower back. Still, he’s already left an impression on the opposition.
“Six-foot-six, green seamer on a dark Basin day? I think they were shitting themselves really,” Vettori said.
“He was bowling so well. He’s good pace and so when you get that good pace you get the consistency of him, his ability to swing the ball, really it was both ways at that stage and just had a length that really troubles Test match batsmen.”
Reflecting on the wider state of cricket in Aotearoa, Vettori is encouraged by what he sees.
“(I’m) nothing but impressed with the depth,” he said.
"Particularly the fast bowling group… to have that squad of five fast bowlers - particularly Matt Henry, who's been so successful over the last couple of years, It shows that depth is available to New Zealand.
“There’s always that worry with a New Zealand team when the last sort of ten years have been absolutely incredible for New Zealand as a cricketing nation and we’ve had a number of our greatest players ever play through that generation.
“To see some of them retire and fall away a little bit there’s always the concern do we have the depth coming through and it’s apparent that we do.”
Tune into Sport Nation for ball-by-ball commentary of the Blackcaps vs Australia T20 series, October 1, 3 and 4 live from Bay Oval, starting 7pm.
