You won't always take bucketloads of wickets: Michael Rippon

New Zealand is known for producing pace-friendly pitches; thus, it is no less than Achilles Heels for a spinner to thrive in the Kiwi nation. The left-arm unorthodox spinner Michael Rippon is one of the players who managed to impress in the domestic tournaments.

The 30-year-old was recently involved in a candid conversation where he spoke at length regarding the challenges for the spinners. Notably, Rippon has the chance to enter a rare breed of players who got an opportunity to represent two different countries in the same year.

The New Zealander was born in Cape Town, but it was the Netherlands team for whom he made his debut on the big stage. Since his international debut in 2013 against Namibia, Rippon has represented the Netherlands on 31 occasions.

He featured in nine One Day Internationals and 18 T20Is for the Dutch country, picking 13 and 15 wickets, respectively. His last outing for the Netherlands came in March earlier this year against the Black Caps.

Meanwhile, the spinner is now in line to represent Black Caps. Rippon forms a part of the 15-member New Zealand squad for the limited-overs tour against Ireland, starting from July 10.

I'm drawing inspiration from Devon Conway: Michael Rippon

Speaking about his experience playing in the pace-friendly Kiwi pitches, the 30-year-old mentioned that the spinners need to put pressure on the batters as they can't take a truckload of wickets.

"You must make peace with the fact that you won't always take bucketloads of wickets. You must learn to play a holding role and build pressure on batters. That is where I suppose my variations and left-arm wrist spin come into the picture.

"There's a novelty factor initially, and just the art is such that there's always a bit of intrigue. But, if you can get it right, you can do a job across different conditions. The drive to learn and better myself in challenging conditions is something I love. I want to make this opportunity count and take it to step by step," Rippon said while speaking to ESPNcricinfo.

The spinner further labelled Devon Conway as his inspiration. Like Rippon, Conway also moved from South Africa to the Kiwi nation for his cricket career. He made his debut for the Black Caps last year and has delivered some stunning performances to be a regular in the playing XI.

"Devon's [Conway, also a South African-born New Zealand cricketer] an example of how if you are determined, you can achieve what you want. You saw him start the way he did last year and the rest's history. So I'm drawing inspiration from him," the Cape Town-born concluded.