***Official*** India in New Zealand 2013/14

[_Ed_]

I reckon Mills has been pretty poor in the last 6 months.

Yeah, tbf, Mills hasn't had his best 6 months in ODIs. But I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on that. He had that random and entirely unexpected captaincy stint, which didn't seem to sit well with him at all.

 

[Prensel]

His death bowling is the best. Don't deny it.

 

[Hurricane]

Mills has been mint in his opening spells - he still has his mojo.

They have just shafted him recently by making him come on first change - that should be Southee or Mitch's job.

 

[ohnoitsyou]

not going to lie, I literally have to Google every second word that Kippax uses

 

[WindieWeathers]

Well done to NZ for he first win...must be a worry about the openers though...if they step up NZ can really make hay against this indian attack. Talking of the indian attack!!..Ashwin? smh...man his struggles on the road just go on and on...he'll need to prove a point in this series otherwise that could be him finished. Also Sharma is looking lost away from the indian roads aswell...the test series is gonna very exciting to see. I wanna see how Boult and Southee are gonna deal with Pujara and Kohli!!..it should be interesting .

 

[Arjun]

Well done to NZ for he first win...must be a worry about the openers though...if they step up NZ can really make hay against this indian attack. Talking of the indian attack!!..Ashwin? smh...man his struggles on the road just go on and on...he'll need to prove a point in this series otherwise that could be him finished. Also Sharma is looking lost away from the indian roads aswell...the test series is gonna very exciting to see. I wanna see how Boult and Southee are gonna deal with Pujara and Kohli!!..it should be interesting .

Road indeed. Not surprisingly, all Indian bowlers struggle on a pitch that doesn't have deep cracks and craters, or tufts of grass. I'm still not impressed with Bhuvneshwar Kumar; he doesn't appear strike bowler material. Shami's worth sticking to, but they may want to have both Pandey and Aaron in the XI. Aaron will spray it around a little bit, but we can live with it- much of Bucky's tight ones also get pasted. Sad to see them stuck with Jadeja, though Ishant is more or less (ideally) out of the side, but both should be benched permanently if they have to win even this series or any other to follow, let alone the World Cup. Ashwin can stay; he's a strike bowler, not an overtimed part-timer. It's Pandey-Shami-Aaron-Bucky-Ashwin, for an improvement. If Dhoni's afraid of losing or getting banned, he can step down from captaincy and focus on his batting.

As for Rohit, he is batting on Kiwi road. There is hardly a dirt track or grassland for an Indian bowler to have a good time. He can score big, when he gets set, although I'm not sure he's good enough to open the innings. He's taken his chances, we know, but he's got neither the technique nor the strike power to open in ODIs. That leaves one opener short. I feel Dhoni needs to step up to four, if he's so not keen on opening the innings. Wherever Rohit bats, though, we prefer he doesn't get into arguments with the fielding side.

This Indian team is much better than what snarky non-Indian fans and overly frustrated Indian fans say in comment sections and forums. It needs to be run like a high-performance unit and not a welfare society.

 

[Shri]

This Indian team is much better than what snarky non-Indian fans and overly frustrated Indian fans say in comment sections and forums. It needs to be run like a high-performance unit and not a welfare society.

You don't get to say that after recommending about a gazillion changes in the paragraph above.

 

[Daemon]

You don't get to say that after recommending about a gazillion changes in the paragraph above.

He implied that changes need to be made to the team in that statement as well. Welfare society and all that.

 

[hendrix]

It's a bloody good Indian team, no doubt about it. It would be superb if they didn't pick Ishant and perhaps recognised the weaknesses of Ashwin, Raina and Rohit.

 

[hendrix]

Well done to NZ for he first win...must be a worry about the openers though...if they step up NZ can really make hay against this indian attack. Talking of the indian attack!!..Ashwin? smh...man his struggles on the road just go on and on...he'll need to prove a point in this series otherwise that could be him finished. Also Sharma is looking lost away from the indian roads aswell...the test series is gonna very exciting to see. I wanna see how Boult and Southee are gonna deal with Pujara and Kohli!!..it should be interesting .

Pujara and Kohli will score runs. There's no doubt in my mind about that.

The critical thing will be how cheaply NZ can get through the rest of them. We can't afford for Vijay to have another tour where he proves everyone wrong, for example. And we can't let Rohit and Dhawan off the hook.

 

[Flem274*]

I noticed (and hope I've remembered correctly) a number of Pujara's wagon wheels were strong square but not straight. Whether that was because he was fed width or it's his preference I'm not sure, but we need a plan beyond swing bowling mixed with bouncers and making him play straight is as good as any.

I hope we remember to look to swing first as our primary weapon and don't get caught up in a bouncer war.

 

[BeeGee]

I hope we remember to look to swing first as our primary weapon and don't get caught up in a bouncer war.

"We bounced out four guys today which was the plan we wanted to implement and Mitch was a big part of that. He keeps producing at key times for us and performing in the manner we've picked him for," McCullum said.

It'll be a bouncer war.

 

[Bahnz]

I noticed (and hope I've remembered correctly) a number of Pujara's wagon wheels were strong square but not straight. Whether that was because he was fed width or it's his preference I'm not sure, but we need a plan beyond swing bowling mixed with bouncers and making him play straight is as good as any.

I hope we remember to look to swing first as our primary weapon and don't get caught up in a bouncer war.

In the early days, there was a belief that he was a compulsive hooker and that that could get him into trouble, so he was deliberately fed a lot of short stuff by a number of sides.

 

[_Ed_]

It'll be a bouncer war.

I don't mind it so much with McClenaghan - seems to work for him. But I think it'll be a bad time if it becomes a widespread tactic.

Also, hope the showers stay away in the Tron today. Seems to be clearing nicely up the road in Auckland at the moment, so fingers crossed.

 

[hendrix]

In the early days, there was a belief that he was a compulsive hooker and that that could get him into trouble, so he was deliberately fed a lot of short stuff by a number of sides.

I do remember Southee bouncing him out.

 

[BeeGee]

If they bowl Mills at the death again I'll throw a wobbly.

 

[Blocky]

Those endorsing a player who is hit and miss with "Hey, but he got 3 MOM awards in the last 23 innings" make me laugh. His median score shows that he does nothing in between those big scores. Maybe if he was a Shahid Afridi type of player down the order with his fielding skill set to add another dimension like Afridi does with his legspin, you could forgive that lack of consistency but as an opening batsman, with a strike rate that isn't excessive in comparison to others in the side to be that inconsistent in a team that often compiles close losses against the top teams in the world, it's just not good enough for a top order player in a team that wants to move back up the rankings. Our issue isn't whether or not we can put quick runs on the board, we have players in the order that are just as good striking the ball and more consistent at coming off than Guptill is, our issue is that for the moment, we have no consistency in our plans around the top order, meaning we're having to extend the consolidation stage in the middle overs to the 35th over, rather than be able to set a platform and launch hard from the 30th onwards.

So either there is a paradigm shift, and Guptill's role in the side becomes that of someone who simply attacks from the first ball in order to replicate what he's been able to do in the T20 scene, or he needs to be dropped, because he's currently not performing a primary role for the team outside of his fielding.

 

[Blocky]

The Mills debate - I agree with the consensus here, if he plays, he's a guy who has to open the bowling and probably bowl six of his ten overs in that first spell in the lead up to the 14th where Nathan McCullum can be used, if he does bowl his full ten, it should be before the 35th over before the powerplay and death stages start.

Southee should probably bowl in lots of four, two and either another two sets of two, or four at the end - four overs at the start, two overs during the powerplay, four overs during the end. I'd rate McCullum to bowl three of the five overs during the powerplay which means we're looking for someone to shoulder the other lot of overs with Southee from the 42nd until the 50th. McCleneghan isn't a bad option here, he attacks and generally takes wickets when players are going after him. I think Anderson has shown the potential for being a very good bowler at the death, good variations, change of pace, can hit a difficult length and seems to have great composure.

The real wonder for me is why we haven't seen at least ten overs combined from Williamson and Ryder, Ryder's nagging medium pace with his variations has always been pretty effective for NZ and he's shown that he's quite serviceable in the leg side around the wicket line that our spinners have started to bowl too.

 

[hendrix]

I think Anderson has shown the potential for being a very good bowler at the death, good variations, change of pace, can hit a difficult length and seems to have great composure.

Disagree with this part, tbh. Anderson's natural length looks like it's on a good length or back of the length, and when he has bowled at the death he's been destroyed. Until he develops a yorker he shouldn't be used in the last 10 overs.

 

[BeeGee]

I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but reading between the lines, it seems like Blocky is unhappy with Guptill in the ODI team. I might be completely off base with this, just the vibe I've got from his last 50 posts.