Once the Fulton experiment goes horribly wrong:
1. Vettori
2. Rutherford
3. Williamson
4. Taylor
5. Brownlie/Ryder
6. McCullum
7. Watling
8. Bracewell
9. Wagner
10. Southee
11. Boult
Hear me out for running with Flem's half-joking crazy selection.
On a pitch that does something, Fulton's a liability. Guptill's a liability, Latham's untested and makeshift, most of Raval's career runs came on roads, Baz won't do it and there's only so much you can put on BJ (out of context that would sound terrible). No matter what, there is no easy solution to who opens - so why not forget about it?
Yeah, Vettori will probably do **** in the role - but every other option is likely to. Why not chuck him there, avoid the 'which middle order batsman do we drop to not risk losing firepower' situation, and tell Kane to put his pads on from the start? Is Vettori's technique that much worse than Fulton's?
Plus the spin combination of Vettori and Williamson gives you a couple of options there, while letting the pace battery bowl sides out. Vettori + 3 feels a bit weak, Vettori + 4 results in telling Brownlie to GAGF. Neither of which is ideal.
Now I do understand why it was a joke, and I'm not necessarily advocating it, but it's worth some discussion IMO.