Ben Sears fit to play an entire series is a win - Rob Walter

According to head coach Rob Walter, one of the main takeaways for New Zealand from their five-match T20I series against South Africa, which capped the Black Caps' international home summer, is having fast bowler Ben Sears fit and firing for the entire series. Sears was the joint-highest wicket-taker in the series with eight strikes in five games at an average of 14.50 and economy rate of 6.44. "First and foremostly for Searsy to have a sort of lengthened period of time where he's been fully fit and playing consecutive games... so to play an entire series is a win and you know forget about the performance side of things," Walter said at his post-series press conference. "Just that is the victory, but you know, seeing how hard he worked in the World Cup [as a traveling reserve] and on the things he was working on, and then seeing it come to fruition in the competitive environment here in New Zealand like again is a huge positive. I know that he's a hard worker and he's hard on himself but you can certainly look back on this series and be sort of very proud of his performance." Sears can crank it up to 140kph and also poses a threat with his ability to generate steep bounce, but his life in the fast lane has been slowed down by injuries. He injured his hamstring again while playing for Washington Freedom during MLC 2025, which caused him to miss the Champions Trophy in 2025. As part of his rehabilitation, Sears then participated in Victoria Premier cricket in Melbourne. He later demonstrated his fitness by competing in the Super Smash for the Wellington Firebirds. He has also been picking the brains of senior fast bowler Lockie Ferguson during his time with New Zealand. Sears referred to Ferguson as "world-class" and "one of the best bowlers in the world for a number of years now" during the home series against South Africa. "It was really helpful and just leaning on him after he bowled, having conversations about what the length needed to be and where to set the field and things like that." After Ferguson left the New Zealand side to spend time with his newborn son, Sears stepped up as their chief enforcer, taking figures of 1 for 22 in his four overs in Wellington before closing out the series with 2 for 37 in Christchurch. Though the Black Caps ended up losing the series from being 2-1 up, in the absence of first-choice players who are away at the IPL or PSL, Walter said that the exposure to the top level was vital for their emerging talent. "There will never be a negative experience, right? As long as we keep it in perspective, the fact that these guys went out there twice to chase and were put under such pressure at international "Against good bowling lineups, it was very different from the domestic level," Walter stated. In addition, you learn a little bit about yourself, where your game is, and, most importantly, what you need to do to get up to speed. So these series will be invaluable for the guys who have played in it, specifically [for] the guys who haven't played a hell of a lot for New Zealand." "Again it's sort of an exciting prospect for a group to be going to Bangladesh with a lot of similar faces," Walter said. "But another opportunity from an inexperienced group [NZ A are also set to visit Sri Lanka] to go into foreign conditions in the subcontinent against another good team in their own conditions and ultimately see what we've learned in the last little bit go learn some more in different conditions and just continue to grow."