Jacob Oram named as Black Caps new bowling coach

The New Zealand cricket team has been going through tough times after an early exit in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, where they were defeated by Afghanistan in the group stage. The inaugural edition winners of the ICC World Test Championship have been making consistent changes to their team. With the emergence of young players, senior players are opting out of the central contracts list to take a mental break and play franchise league cricket.

Amidst this, the New Zealand Cricket Board announced former New Zealand cricketer Jacob Oram as their new bowling coach on Thursday, the 29th of August. He has already worked with the Black Caps over the last 12 months. He will be filling the vacant position left by Shane Jurgensen.

Speaking about this, the former New Zealand cricketer expressed that he is really excited to take the Kiwis Men’s team to new heights.

"I'm really excited to have the opportunity to be involved with the Blackcaps again," Oram said. "To be back involved with a team that means so much to me and has been a big part of my life is a real honour.

"The recent opportunities I've had have been a great insight into where this team is going and I'm excited to continue that work in the coming seasons.

"There's a fresh new wave of talent coming through in the Blackcaps bowling ranks and I hope that I can share my knowledge and experience to help best prepare them for the challenges of international cricket."

The new bowling coach will be working with the current pace duo of Ben Sears and Will O'Rourke. Talking about Oram's experience as a coach, he began his coaching career in 2014 with New Zealand A before working with New Zealand Women as a bowling coach in 2018. Apart from that, Oram has also been an assistant coach in the Abu Dhabi T10 and the bowling coach of MI Cape Town in the SA20.

Black Caps will be seen playing a one-off Test series match against Afghanistan from 9 to 13th September in Noida. This will be the first match between these teams after a daunting defeat in the group stage.