The wicketkeeper-batter has been handed a “surreal” chance to make an New Zealand debut because of the absence of a number of IPL-bound players
“Yeah [starting to sink in], absolutely. Just being around the group and I suppose dreaming of this moment and hopefully getting the opportunity on Friday night [in the one-off T20I],” Cleaver, a wicketkeeper-batter, said. “Yeah, there’s a pretty excited bunch of family members that are organising their way over for Friday night. So, it will be very special to amongst not only friends and family but just home crowd in general.”
“You’ve got to take in a bit of a what-will-be-will-be attitude. You can’t control the weather – so you got to prepare the best you can and I’m pretty positive that it will turn around in the next couple of days”
Dane Cleaver on the rain threat in Napier
“Yeah, absolutely [confident ahead of a possible international debut],” Cleaver said. “I think playing Netherlands [in the warm-ups] last week – you see the quality in their side and also the fact that you can stack up against an international side and taking that form from domestic into this… I suppose it’s just another game of cricket and just got to prepare the best you can and hopefully have some fun.”
The weather in Napier, though, could spoil the fun, as it did during the third warm-up fixture against Netherlands.
“You’ve got to take in a bit of a what-will-be-will-be attitude,” Cleaver said. “You can’t control the weather – so you got to prepare the best you can and I’m pretty positive that it will turn around in the next couple of days and we get some good cricket on Friday night.”
New Zealand have a rich stable of wicketkeeper-batters – Tim Seifert, Devon Conway, Tom Blundell, Glenn Phillips – but this is Cleaver’s chance to shake things up, and step out of his illustrious first cousin’s shadow, ahead of twin World Cups.
Deivarayan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo