There are batsmen who do just about enough to get on by. They’ll win matches for their sides occasionally.
There are also those who by pure rigor, rather let’s say, love for hard-work makes it big. Dravid serves up an example.
Then there are those who don’t have to face sleepless nights despite suffering a lull in form for their audacious natural talent compensates for it mightily well. Lara did it then. De Villiers, until he played did it all the time.
Then there are those, whose craft despite lacking technical virtuosity every now and again, hints at greatness- with true regard for the word- but they still manage to disappoint.
Can we put Martin Guptill in this exciting albeit heartbreaking league?
Not calling Martin Guptill a great of his time, this, mind you, is the force behind New Zealand’s highest individual ODI score of 237, doesn’t increase the price of fish.
Rest assured, it doesn’t threaten the existence of the Sky Tower in Auckland.
But what’s a bit surprising if one were to think about it is how infrequently rather less has a batsman of Martin Guptill’s caliber achieved.
While clearly there aren’t many in New Zealand who can club a cricket ball as powerfully (and absorb pressure as an opener) as Martin Guptill, one wonders whether the Aucklander would be satisfied with his own ODI average of 43, especially when he’s been on song particularly since 2015.
Fans of white-ball cricket may never have to be reminded about a knock that bypassed the mighty Chris Gayle- that 237; 11 sixes at Wellington in the 2015 World Cup- with the Jamaican actually looking more of a clueless spectator that day than an opponent.
Sixes flew at free will and brute batting identified on Martin the bird that’d make the Windies fly off the ground.
It was 2015.
Nearly, half a decade has passed on from that.
Do you know how Guptill- then, McCullum’s general and now, Williamson’s most reliant bat (alongside Ross Taylor) has fared?
Implicit in this half a decade long period – where Guptill struck nearly 3000 of his 6400 plus ODI runs- rest both, a tribute to his caliber and just why despite such lofty standards his batting average isn’t yet 45.
If you’ve followed those fluent knocks- the unbeaten 189 against England 2013, the 180 not out against South Africa in 2017, or the 138 that demolished Sri Lanka in early 2019- you’d know just why Martin Guptill’s a batsman who can even average 50 in ODIs and conjure worldwide acclaim.
This could very well be of the form the likes of Rohit Sharma and Hashim Amla have gathered, albeit in very different styles.
And in here lies the Martin Guptill enigma.
It’s a case study of sorts, one defined by statistical opulence but pigeonholed by some questions, pointing to a sense of incompleteness about the batsman he can be as also, the force he already has become.
The fact that the right-hander behind 1489 ODI runs in 2015, followed by 727 at an average of 42 (2016), 384 at 48 (2017), and finally, 423 at 47 (2018)- isn’t considered an ODI ‘great’ says something.
These numbers, however, point to a batsman who’s been hungry for runs and been attacking in his accumulation of those like a tiger out on a prowl.
And that he isn’t yet the king of the jungle called international cricket points to the incompleteness that only Martin Guptill himself can fill.
Well, who won’t be happy if the Kiwi bird takes that even mightier leap?
To that end, there’s less to deride about Guptill’s game than there’s to rejoice, the reference to the context being those muscular pulls that don’t salivate for Insta-hungry attention, the punchy strokes toward the off and the flick-ish hits over deep square leg.
You’d rely any day on Guptill vis-a-vis a Colin Munro even as the former Hockey player can beat the blues out of an attack. You’d more likely witness a great pairing in him and Taylor as what you’d with Williamson joining his senior teammate in the middle.
But can he be utterly relied upon to change the complexion of a game particularly against spin?
Furthermore, can Guptill hold his nerve in intense situations of the kinds Kusal Perera exhibited just a few hours ago in executing arguably Test cricket’s biggest upset in the past 5 years?
The transformation
Martin Guptill is among the rare talents that can threaten to take the game away from an opposition as much as he can dull hopes by throwing away his wicket once he’s given his side a start.
We saw shades of excellence in the ICC Cricket World Cup, a tournament he made headlines in albeit giving the West Indies’ ‘so-called’ match-winning seniors a thing or two to introspect about their tag.
In the years before, Guptill, rose to attention for being a stable batsman who could hold on to his own before the fiery batsman residing inside would burst with energy, and hence wane down opponents- an image that’s stuck by him.
Yet, in order to fully assess ‘Guppy’, who charms as much as he disappoints, one would have to dwell more.
One would have to introspect about a batsman, who, at the back of a terrible form against India- not even 50 runs from 4 ODIs- suddenly arose with 2 back-to-back hundreds versus Bangladesh (117, 118 so far) compels you to meander in the realm of what might.’
Ever wondered, what might happen if the 32-year-old, who’s both at the peak of his fitness and form, and now with considerable decade-long experience were to further raise his game?
For starters, there’s nothing better than Martin Guptill himself would want. Maybe his greatest critic, one who realized his son’s potential, his late dad, would smile from the heavens, as would his fans.