***Official West Indies in New Zealand***

[_Ed_]

Franklin has to, and I guess Gillespie will too. Slightly concerned about the latter.

 

[Somerset]

I agree that Redmond should have been persisted with for the home series versus WI. My fear is that McIntosh will do well against the WI, only to be exposed by the Indians and on overseas tracks thus putting us back where we were. Even so, if it comes to that, I hope they stick with him and give him a decent run in the opening slot.

Fully agree with your comments there. I remember saying after his innings in Adelaide that now hes finally contributed a decent innings, though admittedly not a huge score, and began to look more accustomed to his role at the top of the New Zealand order, we really need to stick with him. The same happened with Matthew Bell last summer, following a decent performance in the final test against England at Napier, so I wasn't particularly impressed with the dropping of him for the England tour. Ironically theres now been several experts, including Martin Crowe, calling his recall. As for McIntosh, I doubt he'll do that much better than Redmond, and I wouldn't be surprised if either Bell, or Redmond, or maybe even a bolter like Peter Ingram gets called into the side by the end of the summer. I hope to be proven wrong but thats my gut feeling on the matter.

What are people's thoughts regarding Franklin and Vettori? Should Franklin be coming in at 8 or Vettori? I think Franklin the better batsman, certainly potentially, but Vettori has been scoring well over the last couple of years and despite the fact that he is awful to look at, still tends to put the runs up where they count, the scoreboard. Opinion?

Have to stick with Vettori at number eight, surely, for now anyway. I acknowledge Franklin's scored a couple of big centuries in domestic cricket but whats the point in pushing Vettori, whos averaged closed to 40 in tests over the last few seasons, even further down the order? I'd rather see Franklin work his way up past Vettori, rather than automatically be promoted at number eight.

 

[Somerset]

Franklin has to, and I guess Gillespie will too. Slightly concerned about the latter.

Yup Franklin is a certainty to open up, and I'd imagine that Gillespie would start from the other end. To be fair to Gillespie though, he hasn't exactly had a bad last few test matches when hes actually played - a five-for against South Africa and then six wickets in the Wellington test against England. Perhaps we need to show him a bit more confidence?

 

[Polo23]

To be fair to the selectors he did clean up the tail and take wickets when the game was pretty much beyond us. In saying that, I have no problem with him being back and hope he can provide more consistency than in the past.

 

[completeNZer]

Quite a few wellingtonians in the team atm

 

[Natman20]

Yup Franklin is a certainty to open up, and I'd imagine that Gillespie would start from the other end. To be fair to Gillespie though, he hasn't exactly had a bad last few test matches when hes actually played - a five-for against South Africa and then six wickets in the Wellington test against England. Perhaps we need to show him a bit more confidence?

Gillespie relies on players making mistakes and generally they get out smacking him to all parts. My point is his style either works or it doesn't and most of the time it won't. They have persisted with him enough IMO.

 

[thierry henry]

At first I was infuriated by the Gillespie situation, but I've changed my mind

Do people realise that Gillespie actually has a poor domestic OD record, but a good FC record??

It could be a case of a player being given an extended run in a format he is not suited to, failing, and hence not getting a proper chance in the format he is better at...

 

[Somerset]

Gillespie relies on players making mistakes and generally they get out smacking him to all parts. My point is his style either works or it doesn't and most of the time it won't. They have persisted with him enough IMO.

In ODIs they may well have persisted with him for long enough but in tests I don't believe they've given him enough opportunities. Against South Africa, he dismissed Kallis (for 131), Prince, de Villiers and Boucher, so its not as if he dined out on taking the wickets on players who struggle to bat in his five wicket haul. In the England test he took Pietersen's first innings wicket and dismissed Collingwood twice. He hasn't played since. I think its fair to say he can be inconsistent with his bowling but I don't think its quite so justified to say hes been persisted with for long enough in the test match arena.

 

[Flem274*]

Gillespie has a very good bouncer and yorker, and can rattle batsmen. Unfortunately it takes him a while to find his "normal" (for want of a better word) line and length, hence the poor first spell and the very good second spells.

 

[Bahnz]

I'm of two minds on where Franklin should bat. On the one hand, batting him above Vettori would take some of the pressure off the skipper, who looked quite overwhelmed with the enormity of his task at times during the recent tours of England and Australia.
On the other hand, perhaps Vettori thrives in that sort of role, and maybe he'll bat better and more relaxed, knowing that there's another quality batsmen coming in below him.

Oh, and Flynn's been confirmed to bat at 3.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10547078

 

[Athlai]

Jamie How (RH) 27
Tim McIntosh (LH) 29
Daniel Flynn (LH) 23
Ross Taylor (RH) 24
Jesse Ryder (LH) 24
Jacob Oram (LH) 30
Brendon McCullum (RH) 27
James Franklin (LH) 28
Daniel Vettori (LH) 29
Mark Gillespie (RH) 29
Iain O'Brien (RH) 32

Two guys over 30 and 6 lefties, how many other international teams have that kind of makeup?

Australia 4 left handers and 3 under 30's in their previous match.

 

[Precambrian]

Jamie How (RH) 27
Tim McIntosh (LH) 29
Daniel Flynn (LH) 23
Ross Taylor (RH) 24
Jesse Ryder (LH) 24
Jacob Oram (LH) 30
Brendon McCullum (RH) 27
James Franklin (LH) 28
Daniel Vettori (LH) 29
Mark Gillespie (RH) 29
Iain O'Brien (RH) 32

Two guys over 30 and 6 lefties, how many other international teams have that kind of makeup?

Guess the average age of the Indian ODI team that blanked England recently was around 24 (with Tendulkar - 25), with only Tendulkar being above 30.

 

[Polo23]

Good to see Flynn at 3. Now we'll actually see if he has what it takes. I'm still worried about the ball that comes back into him, mainly from the left hander...though I suppose there are only 1 or 2 bowlers in the world who can produce that ball.

 

[analyst]

Flynn should bat at 5 for the Kiwis like Chanders and Prince do for Saffies and Windies. I was apalled to see Ryder bat at 3, he should be opening no doubt, he can blaze away like a Sehwag. Important to have a good balance at the top.

 

[analyst]

Jamie How (RH) 27
Jesse Ryder (LH) 24
Tim McIntosh (LH) 29
Ross Taylor (RH) 24
Daniel Flynn (LH) 23
Brendon McCullum (RH) 27
Jacob Oram (LH) 30
James Franklin (LH) 28
Daniel Vettori (LH) 29
Mark Gillespie (RH) 29
Iain O'Brien (RH) 32

 

[NZTailender]

 

[analyst]

?

 

[KiWiNiNjA]

 

[Polo23]

Flynn should bat at 5 for the Kiwis like Chanders and Prince do for Saffies and Windies. I was apalled to see Ryder bat at 3, he should be opening no doubt, he can blaze away like a Sehwag. Important to have a good balance at the top.

Why the hell should Ryder open? Are you mad?! Yeah, it is important to have a good balance at the top, which makes opening with Ryder even more ludicrous. Ryder should bat at 5..it's nice to see him back in his rightful position.

 

[Athlai]

Jamie How SR 50
Tim McIntosh SR Unknown (this domestic season SR 50)
Daniel Flynn SR 40
Ross Taylor SR 60
Jesse Ryder SR 50
Jacob Oram SR 50
Brendon McCullum SR 65
James Franklin SR 40
Daniel Vettori SR 55

Ryder has a very similar strike rate to the openers already, everyone besides Flynn is a natural stroke player. The problem with NZ is we don't have players capable of sticking around! Not that we don't have players who can score quickly.