In a season where New Zealand's bowlers kept dropping like flies, Jacob Duffy emerged as the leader of the pace pack. During the T20I series against West Indies, Mitchell Santner, the white-ball captain, called Duffy the leader of the attack along with Matt Henry in the shortest format. In the absence of Henry, Kyle Jamieson and Will O'Rourke, Duffy stepped up as the spearhead once again, this time in the longest format to lead New Zealand to a 2-0 series win against West Indies in Mount Maunganui.
Duffy is usually known for his swing and accuracy, but on a day-five Bay Oval pitch he showed that he could also hit the deck and hit it hard, like Neil Wagner used to do back in the day. He generated vicious bounce off a length and made West Indies' batters, who had pulled off an epic draw in Christchurch not too long ago, look like amateurs.
"I'm just enjoying my career, I don't know. I don't look at things too holistically I guess," Duffy said after bowling New Zealand to victory in Mount Maunganui. "It has been an awesome ride; it's been testing with all the bowlers going down and obviously the workload is pretty high "But I guess the fact that Tommy [Tom Latham] keeps asking me to bowl the ball, I'd like to view that as a bit of a privilege. You just get to trust you to keep bowling and doing the good stuff, so that's what I'm trying to do."
Duffy finished the three-match Test series against West Indies with 23 strikes at an average of 15.43, snatching the New Zealand record from Trent Boult for the most wickets over a single home series. It extended his tally to 81, surpassing Sir Richard Hadlee's record for the most wickets in a calendar year for the Black Caps.
Duffy has had a long and winding journey to this summit. Hailing from Southland, a region that isn't necessarily known for producing sporting icons, Duffy made his T20 debut for Otago when he was 17. But he had to wait until he was 26 to make his international debut for New Zealand. On his T20I debut, he bagged 4 for 33 against Pakistan, but had to wait until he was 31 to play Test cricket for New Zealand. In four Tests, he has displayed the traits to lead this attack in the post-Southee-and-Boult era.
"I guess that's probably the Southland kid in me," Duffy said. "I think you grow up down there and even playing for Otago seems ridiculous when you're growing up. To come on to the international stage and I guess start to feel like you belong, that's really cool.
"I guess it was probably out here last year, this time of year against Sri Lanka, I guess I started putting in some match-winning, match-changing spells and stuff in 2020 and you start to feel like you belong internationally. It's a really cool feeling, it gives you that trust and belief in yourself and you know you're worth it."
Duffy's international success has now landed him an IPL deal as well. In the recent IPL mini-auction last week, he was picked by defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) for INR 2 crore as a potential replacement for Josh Hazlewood, who is currently injured.
"I think it's always going to be a surprise isn't it, you see your name on that weird a** auction screen, that was an interesting experience but yeah, like I said it was a very weird experience," Duffy said. "It was quite cool, still a surprise, you just never know what's going to happen.
"It's such an odd experience but pretty cool and we've got a big series in India before that and then into the [T20] World Cup and then there's a lot of time in India coming up, it's an amazing place so I'm looking forward to all of it."
Before that, Duffy will enjoy Christmas with his wife's family in Te Anau and with his mother in Cromwell in Central Otago.
The New Year then brings new opportunities for Duffy. Apart from the India tour and IPL gig, he could be among the frontrunners to be picked in the attack for marquee Test tours of England and Australia.
"It's amazing, there's Test cricket [against] India at home as well, that's a huge series," Duffy said. "It's exciting for the group and definitely I've done two-and-a-half England tours now where I've not played, so to go over there and potentially maybe do that and Aussie away too - those are the pinnacles I think. Those are the highlights of your career potentially, especially in the red-ball scene."
Duffy is also particularly enthused about the growth of Zak Foulkes. Though Foulkes went wicketkless in Mount Maunganui, he showed how good he can become with his ability to swing the ball both ways. He also earned an IPL deal, with Stephen Fleming's Chennai Super Kings (CSK) picking him for INR 75 lakh. Duffy sees Foulkes as a player with a high ceiling.
"He's awesome," Duffy said of Foulkes. "I think we've all forgotten, what is he 22-23? I think we've all forgotten that. I certainly couldn't be doing what he's doing at 23 so just the load on itself is pretty crazy and his skills obviously through the roof. He'll be better for it, to know what your body can go through.
"I guess I've been lucky, I've had those experiences at domestic level for Otago for a lot of years but I've relied on him a lot so I guess it can only be good for him going forward but he's a special talent and he's got another 15 years of it, so he's got a lot of time to learn about him."
While Kane Williamson's future remains uncertain, Duffy and Foulkes promise a bright future for the Black Caps attack.