Perhaps you should elaborate on those numbers a little more. Southee and Boult are proven match winners, both of them have won us test matches. I couldn't care less if Wagner is picking up 5 and 6fers when the opposing team racks up 450, 500 plus or taking hauls against Zimbabwe for Christ sake. It's worthless really. Get back to me when he wins us test matches taking all 'these' wickets.
When was the last time Southee won us a Test? And let's not include that dismal Sri Lankan side who toured late last year, because 1) they were almost minnows in their own right and 2) both Southee & Wagner took cheap wickets against them.
Off the top of my head:
Plus, if a team like South Africa is racking up 480, I'd probably take Wagner's 5/86 ahead of the "proven match winners" with their combined 1/221.
I think the difference in class was shown in those two innings during the last test. Wagner bowls okay and takes 5 for whatever, South Africa make 450 plus. Southee turns up in the second innings and South Africa are struggling at 120-7. That's the difference. Southee has the ability to completely kill a team, Boult likewise. Wagner on the other hand is sort of just taking wickets because somebody needs to but the opposing team will still always rack up massive scores. They're cheap wickets really.
Our spinners are pretty awful though. I'd be very surprised if the new ball goes to any of them.
This makes no sense. If anything, it's Southee's wickets that were meaningless since by the time he bowled that spell, SA had a massive lead. Wagner's wickets in the first innings atleast sort of kept the game within NZ 's reach.
