Glenn Phillips doing something extraordinary is not news. But changing his stance to left-hander, walking across the pitch, and then smacking a six over cover during Otago’s Super Smash 2025-26 clash against Central Districts, stunned not just fans but Phillips as well.
As it happens, there was a good reason for it. Before the New Year, Phillips stole the spotlight at Dunedin’s University Oval when he took on left-arm orthodox spinner Jayden Lennox as a left-handed batter and cleared the boundary as comprehensively as he good as he does as a right-hander. However, this was not just for show and did not come suddenly; it was the result of years of quiet preparation.
Glenn Phillips explained to New Zealand Cricket before the Kiwis’ white-ball squad departed for the white-ball tour of India, starting in less than a week, saying it was “a couple of years” in the making.
“I enjoy my left-handed batting training,” Phillips said. “I’ve done it for multiple reasons. One, just to keep both hands and both sides of the brain working, and also for the opportunity to take down left-arm spin at some stage. It’s more of a future thing. But with plenty of left-arm spin in that game, it made sense to give it a go and bring it back into training. The fact that the chance came in the match to use it was great.”
“I have been practising batting with both hands since my early 20s, after almost changing to left-handed as a child. It’s a skill I’ve always had,” he added. “I was just a bit too lazy back then to change completely. Around 20, I started taking it seriously again, practising against fast and spin bowling in the nets to get it right.”
In modern-day T20 cricket, teams always seek favourable matchups. The ball turning away from a batter is among the most favourable ones in white-ball cricket, a reason behind teams prioritising wrist spinners as they generally have two weapons, a googly and a leg-spinner, in their arsenal. However, there is also a case why teams also prefer left-arm orthodox spinners, at any level of cricket, considering there is a significant proportion of batters who are right-handed in world cricket.
Phillips has quite good numbers against left-arm orthodox spinners in T20s, but his strike rate is modest. Across 29 innings, the right-hander has scored 203 runs from 162 balls, averaging 40.6. His strike rate sits at 125.3, and 35.2% of the deliveries he faced were dot balls, highlighting a concern. Against leg-spinners or chinamans bowlers, Phillips has averaged only 23 since January 2023 with a strike rate of 122.9, with a dot percentage reading at 37.4.
On the India tour, Phillips and other Black Caps batters will face the challenge of left-arm orthodox Axar Patel, leg-spinner Varun Chakaravarthy and chinaman Kuldeep Yadav, all capable of taking the ball away from the right-handers. Henceforth, a right-handed batter switching to left-handed completely opens the game for him while forcing the opposition side to change their plans, which could help him improve his strike rate and dot ball percentage.
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Against Central Districts, Phillips found the situation was perfect for his creative stroke play. Otago was 186 for 6 with two balls left in the innings. Phillips, already on 83 off 46 balls, had nothing to lose, except maybe his teammates’ disappointment if it wouldn’t have paid off.
Watch the video here:
Lennox, as expected, bowled wide on the off side to restrict Phillips space and put more power behind the shot if he tried to whack it towards the leg side. But Phillips shuffled slightly towards his leg-side and threw the kitchen sink towards the ball and hit an inside-out shot through the line and cleared the rope comfortably. Next ball, he swept it towards the cow corner for a single as the non-striker got out in the search for a second run.
With a limited-overs series in India, including three ODIs and five T20Is commencing on January 11, the 29-year-old feels the timing is perfect to test himself in spin-friendly conditions. However, none of the venues where New Zealand will play their bilateral white-ball matches against India will be in use at the upcoming T20 World Cup, which is exactly a month away.
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