'They said my method wouldn't work at Test level. I fit the Bazball mould'

Last Thursday morning, Nottinghamshire were training at Trent Bridge ahead of a T20 fixture against Derbyshire the following evening.

Their two overseas players, Colin Munro and Shaheen Shah Afridi, were standing on the outfield, waiting to bat in the nets - at least, so they claimed. Really, they were watching the opening stages of the World Test Championship final on a phone. "I said to Shaheen, 'Man, Test cricket's still the pinnacle, eh?'" Munro recounts.

It is an admission that might seem at odds with Munro's career trajectory. He played a solitary Test, over a decade ago, and now travels the world as a T20 freelancer playing for Tigers, Vipers, Rockets and Outlaws. Nearly six years have passed since he hit a red ball in anger.

But Munro's ceiling as a Test cricketer is a great imponderable. Across a 48-match first-class career, he compiled a record that remains staggering even in an era of unprecedented aggression, averaging 51.58 while scoring at 98.79 runs per 100 balls. "I fit the Bazball mould," Munro says, laughing.

Even accounting for New Zealand's flat pitches and small grounds, Munro's first-class statistics are outrageous. In one season, 2014-15, he hit 899 runs for Auckland, the majority of them from No. 4. That haul included 46 sixes in nine appearances, half of which came in a single innings of 281 from 167 balls.

His one Test came in South Africa in early 2013, when New Zealand were at their lowest ebb. In the first of two Tests, Brendon McCullum's first as captain, they were rolled for 45. In the second, an injury to James Franklin meant that Munro came in as the allrounder at No. 7; he made 0 and 15 in another innings defeat.

"I was really underdone," he recalls. "I was asked to stay on after the T20s and was told I was just going to be there as cover. I neglected my batting in the nets because I was just getting ready for the one-day series afterwards, so I didn't do a lot of red-ball preparation with the bat. I got out first ball in the first innings, got 15 in the second, and then was never even considered again."

Munro continued to score heavily for Auckland in the Plunket Shield and made occasional appearances for New Zealand A, but the door stayed shut. "I honestly thought I deserved a spot," he says. "And not just because of my average but the weight of runs that I scored. At the time, you're very disappointed - and a little bit bitter - that you're not playing Test cricket, because that's what you wanted to do."

He reconciled himself to the fact that, with McCullum counter-attacking in the middle order, there might not be room for another player in the same mould. "Maybe he didn't want to go down the route of having two cowboys in the middle," Munro says. "At that time, he probably thought that two ultra-aggressive players through that middle order is probably not the best way to go. Now, in this day and age, there's probably space for two or three players that could play that role."

But after McCullum retired in 2016, Munro found himself looking at some of the players New Zealand picked and thinking: "'How did they get there?' I felt like I had to ask some tough questions to the management, and they just said that my method - the way that I played first-class cricket - wouldn't work at Test level."

In early 2018, he decided to pull the plug on his first-class career. "I knew that Test cricket was long gone. There was no point playing ten first-class games a season and putting my body at risk of injury. Everything happens for a reason - my wife tells me that - and since I've gone on my white-ball journey, things have worked out pretty well."

Munro has always considered McCullum his mentor, and he has clearly been influenced by him. "He's helped me mentally, more than anything," Munro explains. "He would tell me, 'Don't ever get caught up in scoring runs and thinking you're too good, and when you're not scoring any runs, don't get too low.'

"In the last three years, I often fall back on those conversations to try and stay grounded. Whether I score a duck or 80 off 40 balls, it doesn't really matter. If it's not your day, it doesn't make you a bad person; and if it is, it doesn't make you a better person.

"At the end of the day, I'm Colin Munro, and I play cricket for a job; it's just that my job is in the public eye, rather than sitting in an office doing emails. That's probably the biggest thing that I've taken from him, as well as trusting myself to go and play my way. When I play well, there's only a handful of people that can do what I can."

McCullum would tell Munro to "chase that moment" - much as he has with Zak Crawley since becoming England's Test coach. "Who is super, super consistent? Probably a handful of players in the whole world," Munro says. "If you're not the world's best player - which I know I'm not - you're looking to play those impactful innings.

"He's all about giving guys clarity on what they want to do; letting them go out there and be aggressive. So many people think that's just going out there and slogging from ball one, but there's a method behind it - absorbing pressure when you need to, when they're bowling well. And then, once you get a sniff, that's when you can really pounce."

When McCullum was cutting his teeth as a coach, Munro played for his Trinbago Knight Riders team in the CPL. "He spoke about picking match-ups, going hard - and then even harder. So if the left-arm spinner comes on to a left-hand batter, take him down. Don't just get 10 runs in the over; if you can get 18, it accelerates the game.

"I don't know what it is with him: you just have a normal conversation with him - whether it's about cricket, horse racing, whatever - and he makes you walk away feeling 10 foot tall. He's got a real way with words that means he can really, really get the best out of people."

During his time at Trent Bridge, Munro has overlapped with a handful of players who have featured during McCullum's tenure, including Ben Duckett and Olly Stone. "They told me that they feel like they've got a new lease of life under him - remembering why they play the game.

"It's a lot of fun. It's not just about doing enough to stay in the team for the next tour, the next set of contracts or whatever it is. It's about going out there and just putting on a show for the people watching. Brendon always talks about that: 'We entertain people, and Test cricket is entertaining.'"

Munro arrived in Nottingham a month ago and is staying in Edwalton, a village just to the south of the city, until the end of August. His wife, son and daughter will arrive next week and will be with him until the end of the Hundred, for which he will return to defending champions Trent Rockets.

"As a player that travels the world to play cricket, it's nice to be able to unpack your bags for a little bit of time instead of living out of the suitcase, or from hotel to hotel," he says. "It'll be a great experience for my kids, to travel around England a bit."

He intends to take them to an Ashes Test if his schedule allows: "I don't think there's much better than watching Test cricket in England. Back home you get 4 or 5,000 people; here, you get full crowds."

And what about the question everyone is asking of McCullum and his team? "It's going to be a crazy good Ashes," Munro predicts. "It's like, 'Oh, will they be able to do it against Starc and Cummins.' Well, they do it in one-day cricket against these boys - so in Test cricket, why not?"