He was always an excellent new-ball bowler, but Matt Henry has evolved into a fine death-overs bowler now, and being the leader of the attack has freed him up
Deivarayan Muthu07-Mar-2025Between the otherworldly swing of Trent Boult and Tim Southee, Matt Henry’s own swing and seam had often gone underappreciated. In New Zealand’s first ICC competition without Boult or Southee since 2010, Henry has finally emerged from the shadows of those two greats, topping the Champions Trophy wickets chart with ten strikes in four innings at an average of 16.70 and economy rate of 5.32.Much like Boult and Southee, Henry is known to the wider world as a new-ball phenom. When he was a late addition to New Zealand’s squad for the 2015 ODI World Cup, he reminded Martin Crowe of a young Richard Hadlee. Ten years on, Henry isn’t just about swing or seam anymore. He has evolved into a complete fast bowler, who can be just as potent with the old ball.Matt Henry with the old ball? Stop kidding me!Related
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No, really. Since 2023, Henry is the joint-highest wicket-taker, alongside Shaheen Shah Afridi, in the last ten overs in ODI cricket, with 25 strikes in 20 innings (Shaheen has the benefit of bowling in 22 innings) at an economy rate of 6.79. And nobody has a better bowling average than Henry’s 12.36 for a minimum of 200 balls between overs 40 and 50 since 2023.His corresponding numbers in the death between his ODI debut at the start of 2014 and end of 2022 were poor: 23 wickets in 41 innings at an average of 26.86 and economy rate of 8.56.Henry’s outrageous improvement with the old ball has transformed him into an all-purpose, all-format bowler. Since 2023, he is also the highest wicket-taker in international cricket across formats with 136 strikes in 66 innings. Ravindra Jadeja (125), Jasprit Bumrah (124), Afridi (124) and Mitchell Starc (117) all slot in behind Henry on this list.The IPL, the Hundred and the MLC all wanted Henry. You can’t just sit idle with your skills these days. Unless you keep upgrading them, cricket will leave you behind.Henry refused to be left behind. A career-threatening back injury had already left him far behind during his early years. He then spent a number of years watching Boult and Southee, and then Kyle Jamieson, surge ahead of him.ESPNcricinfo LtdIt was the 2023 T20 Blast that unlocked the old-ball skills of Henry. While he continued to attack and hunt for wickets with the new ball, he developed defensive skills with the older, softer one, hiding it away from the hitting arcs of batters with slower balls and cross-seamers. He came away with 31 wickets in 14 matches at an average of 13.25 and economy rate of 7.85 on surfaces that were largely flat and favoured hitting through the line.Henry’s title-winning run at Somerset in the T20 Blast gave him the belief that he could succeed with the old ball as well. Henry doesn’t have a magic slower one, like the knuckle ball or the back-of-the-hand variation, yet, but he can get his offcutter to react differently on different pitches.Look at this dismissal from the 2023 ODI World Cup. Mushfiqur Rahim collapses to the floor like a house of cards. The slower ball hits the Chennai pitch and skids under his bat – as opposed to bouncing higher – and knocks out his off stump.Henry can also get his offcutter to rise at the rib cage or even higher. He drew a mis-hit from Hardik Pandya with that slower bouncer in Dubai last Sunday on his way to a five-wicket haul. His change-ups, bowled without any discernible change in his action, were particularly vital to New Zealand limiting India to 249 for 9.
“He’s always had the reputation of being an outstanding new-ball bowler, but you see the development in his game is using that slower bouncer and different fields, etc at the back end. He’s a much more rounded bowler and that’s why he’s having success across formats”Shane Bond on Matt Henry
Shane Bond is so impressed with Henry’s versatility that he rates him as one of New Zealand’s best ODI bowlers. “When you look at New Zealand’s great one-day bowlers, you think of Trent Boult… but Matt Henry has been his partner-in-crime for a long time. If you line up their records, it will be pretty similar,” Bond said on ESPNcricinfo’s Match Day show. “He’s got an exceptional one-day record, and he just continues to be a world-class bowler now. He does it on the big occasions.”He showed that he’s really developed his skills at the back-end of the innings. He’s always had the reputation of being an outstanding new-ball bowler, but you see the development in his game is using that slower bouncer and different fields, etc at the back end. He’s a much more rounded bowler and that’s why he’s having success across formats.”Two of New Zealand’s frontline quicks, who usually operate with the old ball, Lockie Ferguson and Ben Sears, were sidelined from the Champions Trophy even before the start of the tournament. All of Will O’Rourke, Nathan Smith and Jacob Duffy had never played in an ICC tournament before this Champions Trophy, but despite various setbacks, Henry has made Black Caps’ seam attack work across four venues in two countries.ESPNcricinfo LtdHe won’t agree that he’s the leader of this attack, but he certainly has all the attributes of one: he fronts up to bowl across phases, produces significant breakthroughs and is often spotted at mid-on or mid-off, passing inputs to the rookie bowlers and putting his arm around them, like a protective older brother embracing his younger one, when they get hit.All of New Zealand perhaps went down with Henry when he landed awkwardly on his shoulder to grab the catch of Heinrich Klaasen at long-on in the semi-final against South Africa. Henry then picked himself and New Zealand up, returning to bowl two boundary-less overs at the death to go with the wicket of Kagiso Rabada with a grippy offcutter from over the wicket. New Zealand are hoping that he will be fit for the final.India, of course, will be more familiar with new-ball Henry. He blitzed through their line-ups in the 2019 ODI World Cup semi-final in Manchester and more recently in the Bengaluru Test last year with his mastery of the upright as well as the wobble seam. He even tricked Shubman Gill into playing across the line with an inducker when New Zealand met India in Dubai.Henry makes things happen with the new ball. Now, he can make things happen with the old ball too. Bet against Henry 2.0 at your own peril.