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

[Hurricane]

My opinion of McCullum's test captaincy oscillates wildly. He's one of those guys who "trusts his hunches", even when those hunches are pretty ****ing stupid. Also his tendancy to gift his wicket often casts a negative light on his captaincy, even though it probably shouldn't. At the same time, he's generally been sensible with rotating through his bowlers and I like the fact that he backs them to take wickets by setting attacking fields.

His batting is part of his captaincy. You need to lead from the front with your own performance. Some people like me believe it is he biggest thing you can contribute to a victory - your own performance - scoring a century always outweighs funky field settings.

Nonetheless I am not judging him only on his own poor form, It is the fact he ALWAYS has hunches. And I mean ALWAYS. One hunch an hour is ok. But a new hunch every 3 overs is OTT and that is what he is like.

He needs to have patience with his field settings.

 

[Bahnz]

When you get back from practice you'll have to elaborate on why you think he's such a poor captain. Have fun!

Edit: didn't see your last post.

 

[Prince EWS]

I have to pop out to cricket practice right now PEWS - so I will have to limit my answer to saying I am not rating him against the current test match captains in the world as I don't see enough of Pakistan, SL etc. and I would even like to see more of Sammy before passing judgement on him.

I am just rating him out of all test match captains I have observed closely in my life either playing for NZ or overseas teams and I have never seen anyone worse than him. He is definitely the worst NZ test captain I have seen out of
Fleming, Howarth, Coney, Wright, and Jeff Crowe.

I have left Ross off the list because although I rate Ross as a decent skip some of the NZ posters are convinced he was a bad skip and I don't really feel like stirring the pot over something that we buried as a discussion topic 12 months ago.

Yeah definitely fair enough to say he's a below average New Zealand captain.

New Zealand have historically had good captains though; by current Test standards I reckon he's average at worst or even above average.

 

[Mike5181]

McCullum > Vettori and Taylor

Fleming's certainly better, but then he was among the best the game's ever seen.

 

[wellAlbidarned]

I was too young to really understand captaincy during fleming's era, what made him so highly rated as a captain?

 

[Prince EWS]

I was too young to really understand captaincy during fleming's era, what made him so highly rated as a captain?

Meticulous plans to each individual opposition batsman more than anything else.

 

[Bahnz]

Yeah, it's often been said that Fleming was a great strategist if not a great tactician. Same reason as to why he's turned into a fairly succesful coach I imagine.

 

[wellAlbidarned]

Meticulous plans to each individual opposition batsman more than anything else.

Cheers. Captaincy is definitely one of the hardest things to judge looking back on once you've missed it.

 

[sreeku7]

. Let's not celebrate mediocrity any longer if we want the #1 ranking back.

It is the performance that is mediocre.This is almost the same team which won the Champion trophy recently.Of course Dinesh Kartik at no. 4 and the absence of Raina also helped.But the Indian attack faired well even though there was no Shami there.I think where the selectors went wrong was in disturbing a winning combination and bringing back losers like Yuvi and Raina

 

[Sarun]

I think Champions Trophy as an overseas win has been overstated.

The current strategy seems to rely on hope that since the opposition won't take any risks in middle overs, the spinners can get through their over economically. Now, even with that, their figures at the end of the game looks bad. Once they get attacked in the middle, it might look calamitous.

 

[lockton2skipper]

from what I've seen McClennaghan looks to be the third best seamer in new zealand, better prospect for the test side than wagner ?

 

[hendrix]

from what I've seen McClennaghan looks to be the third best seamer in new zealand, better prospect for the test side than wagner ?

There's at least 5-6 better Test prospects than McClenneghan.

specifically as a third seamer, he might be close, but there's still 2-3 guys who'd be ahead of him.

Hamish Bennett, who's replacing Milne in the ODI side, is the front runner to replace Wagner.

 

[Blocky]

Wagner won't be replaced in this series, potentially if he doesn't collect wickets in one of the tests then they'll replace him, but McCullum loves having him in the side and is a very vocal supporter around what he contributes even if the stats aren't always there.

 

[hendrix]

someone less lazy than me to do a median wickets and runs scored for Wagner.

But yeah, he's done just enough to retain his place. Just.

 

[Howsie]

from what I've seen McClennaghan looks to be the third best seamer in new zealand, better prospect for the test side than wagner ?

Meh, McCleannaghan has never really done much in first class cricket, he's not exactly someone I'd be rushing to put in the test team. In saying that Neil Wagner is pure garbage and it wouldn't exactly be hard to upgrade his position. Matt Henry and a fit Ben Wheeler would be the first two players I'd look at, with Hamish Bennett following in just behind them (obvs the selectors don't feel that way). You can't pick Doug Bracewell at the moment, he's really lost the plot with his bowling sadly. Stopped swinging the ball and pretty much just became a straight up and down dobbler.

 

[Bahnz]

Yeah, while I could tell that it wasn't going to happen, I agree with Flem that the only player who had any serious chance of forcing Wagner out of the test side was Milne. Now that he's out of the picture Wagner's spot should be safe for the series, barring a match losing effort at Eden Park.

 

[hendrix]

You don't think they have Bennett in mind?

 

[Blocky]

someone less lazy than me to do a median wickets and runs scored for Wagner.

But yeah, he's done just enough to retain his place. Just.

His stats are horrible, but he does tend to get the very best player in the opposition team out and if you look at his dismissals versus batting position, over 70% of his dismissals have come against the Top 5 players. I think at the moment he's just over-trying when he's in the side, his bowling action has gone to the dogs because he's trying to bowl express pace, rather than settle into a relaxed rhythm and do what he does. If we're talking about statistics in the NZ side, the person who needs to go is Sodhi.

 

[Bahnz]

You don't think they have Bennett in mind?

He's there or there abouts, and will probably be named in the test squad, but he won't play at Auckland, except as the 4th seamer, and I think it would take a terribad performance from Wagner to see him picked for Wellington.

 

[Blocky]

Wagner will play both tests, I'm hoping Sodhi won't - which could create a fourth seamer slot.