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From an article I found that ECB has given rest to those players who recently got back from IPL. And they want to check out the youngsters before the ashes. Perhaps, New Zealand took it as a warm up series before the WTC finals. Devon Conway scored double hundreds in his debut match while most other Kiwis batsman struggled to make score today. New Zealand found a good batsman before the WTC final. But I noticed that Conway was a bit nervous during his batting, hopefully he will gain confidence on his batting from next innings.
Devon Conway did the right thing by moving from South Africa to New Zealand (in fact, New Zealand now seems to be the preferred destination to non-quota cricketers from South Africa. At 29 years, he is not young. But he still managed to enter the playing XI for one of the premium test sides and he should be happy about it. Actually there were 4 South Africa born players in the playing XI for NZ (apart from Conway, there are Wagner, Watling and de Grandhomme).
The other non-quota players from South Africa should take note. By 2022, the South African board is planning 7 quota and 4 non-quota players in the XI. So youngsters such as Wiaan Mulder need to think whether they want to remain there, or explore new opportunities abroad.