Colin Munro potential for T20 World Cup squad, despite unavailability: Selection Manager Sam Wells

It's but obvious to garner a recency bias in sports like cricket, where current performances are given more weightage as compared to past performances, which more often than not, are overlooked. However, this doesn't hold true for southpaw Colin Munro, who represented New Zealand in T20Is previously more than four years back, in February 2020 against India.

Speaking of Munro's records in international cricket, the 37-year-old has represented the BlackCaps in 65 T20Is, debuting way back in 2013. The ace batter has scored 1724 runs at a blistering strike rate of 156.44, maintaining an average of 31.34, with three hundreds and 11 fifties in 20-over internationals.

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After unveiling a second-string squad for the five-match T20I series to be played against hosts Pakistan in the latter half of April, Selection Manager Sam Wells disclosed that they had approached Munro prior to the tour. Wells stated that it's not an unknown fact that Munro has been in fine nick since the last few years in the franchise T20 circuit, and especially in the CPL.

According to him, the southpaw made himself unavailable for the Pakistan tour, but still remains a potential alternative for being included in the 15-member squad for the T20 World Cup 2024, with the ICC mandating teams to turn-in their preliminary squads by May 1, with a final deadline on May 25.

“We got in touch with Colin. He's obviously been in fine form for the last few years in various competitions around the world and, in particular, has an excellent record in the Caribbean Premier League. He made himself unavailable for this tour, but he's potentially still an option,” Wells was saying as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.

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Munro will be called if there are any injuries: Wells

With the Kiwis having top-order batters in superfluous abundance including Finn Allen, Devon Conway, and Rachin Ravindra, it would probably take an injury or an external perturbation to even consider Munro to be a part of the equation, as mentioned by Wells.

“I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to work out that our top-order is relatively settled, but if anything were to happen with injuries and what-not, he's still an option for us,” Wells concluded.