Meet Josh Clarkson, New Zealand's most 'dangerous' T20 hitter

No James Neesham (Bangladesh Premier League). No Daryl Mitchell (injured). Step forward, Josh Clarkson. Josh, who?

The biggest hitter in the Super Smash in recent years, that's who.

Since the start of 2020, Clarkson has had a strike rate of 155.70 in New Zealand's premier domestic T20 tournament - the highest among all batters who have played more than 30 innings during this period. The next best on this list is Chad Bowes with a strike rate of 153.50. And only Finn Allen (66) and Bowes (51) - both top-order batters - have hit more sixes than Clarkson (50) in the Super Smash from January 2020.

Clarkson's ability to go bang from the get-go, like Allen does, makes him a particularly dangerous T20 prospect. This is the opinion of Glenn Pocknall, Clarkson's domestic coach at Central Districts, who has also had a stint as New Zealand coach.

"Look the Blackcaps have plenty of brilliant ball-strikers and Josh can do it (hit sixes) from ball one which is what makes him dangerous," Pocknall tells ESPNcricinfo. "Finn Allen is another who can hit from ball one and when these types of players get going, they make batting look easy."

Pocknall has also been at the receiving end of Clarkson's middle-order onslaughts when he was Wellington's coach from 2018 to 2022. A strong Wellington attack, which included Hamish Bennett, Logan van Beek and Ben Sears, had reduced Central Districts to 81 for 4 at the start of the 11th over, but Clarkson came out and crashed an unbeaten 71 off 32 balls to lead his team to a match-winning total of 190 for 4 at the Basin Reserve in a Super Smash game in December 2021.

Clarkson, 27, is a modern T20 player. His towering frame - 6 feet 3 inches - and long reach gives him a broad range and there are no half-measures about his ball-striking.

"Of late he's worked really hard on his ability to hit the ball behind the wicket which has enabled him to use not only his power but also have some finesse when it's required," Pocknall says. "Given his height he can turn good balls into fuller balls and then they go sailing over the bowler's head. Also, a big development I've seen over the last few years is his ability off the back foot meaning he can now access all areas of the ground, which makes him hard to bowl to."

Ross Taylor, who has played alongside Clarkson at Central Districts, also rates Clarkson's middle-order batting highly and backs him to do a job with the ball as well.

"When I played the last season, he [Clarkson] was head and shoulders the best middle-order player, I think, going around," Taylor told Sky Sport NZ in December after Clarkson was called into the New Zealand ODI side. "Obviously had a few injury issues with elbows, backs, and things like that, but don't underestimate his bowling.

"We've talked a lot about his batting - probably the biggest hitter going around in the circuit - but his bowling is there, especially on wickets that are low and slow. He's a tall bowler, probably that Colin de Grandhomme 125-130 [kph] and bowl wicket-to-wicket to give the skipper an option, I think. Hopefully, he can turn that potential into reality in the next sort of a while."

While de Grandhomme more or less kisses the pitch with the ball, Clarkson can actually hit the deck with hard lengths, like he showed on his ODI debut against Bangladesh in Dunedin, where he bounced out opener Anamul Haque. And in his most recent game, in the Ford Trophy, he returned career-best List A figures of 4 for 60 against Canterbury in Christchurch.

"His bowling is going from strength to strength and naturally bowls a heavy ball given his height," Pocknall says. "His accuracy and change-ups have developed over the last few seasons and is becoming more and more a genuine threat with the ball."

Clarkson won't tinker with his game and will continue to play with the same approach that has brought him domestic success over the years.

"Nothing really changes. Obviously picked on your performances in the domestic game, so nothing really changes for me," Clarkson said recently. "It's just go out there with freedom and just play the way I do."

The biggest hitter in the Super Smash is finally ready for the big stage. Against Australia, the ODI World Cup champions and T20 World Cup title contenders, in Wellington on February 21, in front of his family.