Neesham prioritises bowling on New Zealand return

Neesham took 3/38 on Thursday, 3 January, in the first one-day international against Sri Lanka – his first time in New Zealand colours in 18 months – and he was more thrilled about the wickets than his feats with the bat.

"Bowling's been the main focus for me really over the last year and a half or so since I got left out of the team," he said. "I pretty much now train as a frontline bowler and get my batting training done when I can."

Neesham, who was also named in the Twenty20 International squad, broke back into the national team on the back of strong performances in domestic cricket. He credited the move from Otago to Wellington, where he got to work with captain and quick bowler Hamish Bennett, as behind the success.

"The move to Wellington has been really good," he said. "The increased load, the increased number of balls I've been bowling is helping a lot.

"It's about trying to be as relaxed as possible, to stay loose, and I know that I've got the ability to bowl up around that 140 [kph] mark and if I'm bowling well, that's good enough. It's just a case of being more consistent and that was a good start yesterday obviously.

"I was keeping a little eye on the speed gun in that second spell and it was still reasonably up there at the seven-eight over mark, which has been a bugbear of mine in the past."

The increased stamina and not worrying about his technique too much had served to improve his confidence, he added. "I have the confidence at the top of my mark that if I do everything right and my fingertips release the ball properly then it will come out as quick as any all-rounder.

"It's just about the little one percenters with the consistency now and hopefully moving forward it will continue to get better."

With the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2019 coming up, Neesham is keen to stick around the set-up. But, at the end of the day, it wasn't the personal success that mattered, he pointed. out.

"I wasn't really too concerned with the runs and wickets to be fair. It was more about trying to enjoy returning to the team again and getting around the lads again and to be fair they've been really welcoming and it was just a lot of fun."