*Official* New Zealand tour of Sri Lanka 2019

[NZTailender]

Still think Ajaz should be first choice spinner for Aus tour at the end of the year. Steve Smith's only weakness (!) is left arm orthodox. Just play Ajaz at 11 with Southee, Wags, Boult, CdG and maybe Ferguson in the squad too.

Yeah but you know they'll bottle it and pick Santner plus Southee, Boult, Bracewell and Kuggleijn.

 

[trundler]

Wow...

 

[_Ed_]

Yeah but you know they'll bottle it and pick Santner plus Southee, Boult, Bracewell and Kuggleijn.

Oh god.

 

[Moss]

Yeah but you know they'll bottle it and pick Santner plus Southee, Boult, Bracewell and Kuggleijn.

Can certainly see them picking Santner on the theory that they need a restrictive spinner who can bat. Plus his "experience" in Australia. Bracewell was living off his Hobart spell when he played all three tests in 2015.

 

[Flem274*]

doug bracewell was the only bowler on that tour who could stay in the channel for an entire over.

people are quickly forgetting how disgracefully southee and boult bowled on that tour. i can handle being outplayed, but i will always spew fire at bowling both sides of the pitch at medium pace.

 

[morgieb]

Yeah Bracewell really wasn't that bad in Australia. He isn't in the top 5 quicks New Zealand have though, and that's being generous.

 

[NZTailender]

They were pretty bad yeah, but Bracewell had done sfa to be picked. They were hoping of a repeat of Hobart despite not playing in Hobart or on a seaming wicket.

 

[Flem274*]

he shouldn't be near the test side now (probably is) but i've always found it weird that cwers seem to want him to carry the can for the failings of southee and boult and the non-selection of wagner.

as soon as southee and boult came into brisbane spraying it around at under 130kph we were toast. because we have a habit of serving ourselves up on a platter to australia im (not) looking forward to seeing how we're going to do it all over again.

 

[Moss]

They were pretty bad yeah, but Bracewell had done sfa to be picked. They were hoping of a repeat of Hobart despite not playing in Hobart or on a seaming wicket.

Yeah this. TBF Bracewell exploited favourable conditions rather well in Adelaide, but shouldn't have been ahead of Wagner or even Henry at that point.

Re: Southee and Boult, for me the bad tour was at least partly because of workload mismanagement - IPL and England tests straight after the busy home season and world cup, and then the ridiculous decision of playing both in the England ODIs that followed. They were well off the pace for the remainder of 2015/16 including when Australia came over for the return series. Hope Boult in particular enjoys a reasonable break this time before 2019/20 starts.

 

[Flem274*]

is vishwa fernando injured btw? im surprised we haven't seen him in the mix.

i've been known to be very insulting to sri lankan quicks, lakmal and rajitha in particular, but i like kumara and i've never seen fernando so i was hoping to.

also maybe they should be brave and give perera the opening job. given gunathilaka is still polluting their squads then that's unhelpful for project: bin thirimanne. also frees up a spot for chandimal who is actually good.

dimuth karunaratne
kusal perera
kusal mendis
angelo mathews
dinesh chandimal
dhananjaya de silva
niroshan dickwella
suranga lakmal
akila dhananjaya
vishwa fernando
lahiru kumara

i rate that batting, and that bowling could yet become something.

 

[Jezroy]

Just watched some highlights again from the final days play.

Great pressure built up by The Caps baby. Clever from Tom to get rid of Dickwella. Just seemed a sense of calm that I don’t think was there for a lot of the first test.

Would be great if CDG could work out leg spinners.

BJ Watling is a New Zealand hero.

Please oh please let Tom Latham have turned a corner.

And please let Kane have just been tired.

 

[NZTailender]

he shouldn't be near the test side now (probably is) but i've always found it weird that cwers seem to want him to carry the can for the failings of southee and boult and the non-selection of wagner.

as soon as southee and boult came into brisbane spraying it around at under 130kph we were toast. because we have a habit of serving ourselves up on a platter to australia im (not) looking forward to seeing how we're going to do it all over again.

He got the blame, sure, and outbowled Boult and Southee in quite a few innings on that tour. Boult and Southee bowled pretty atrociously but they also had captain amazing trying to out-intent the Aussies, showing off wacky fielding plans. Southee and Boult were rusty, Henry was partially sold down the river and not playing Wagner was a huge misstep. It was such a frustrating tour, one that Bracewell did his best on and gave a good accounting, but by rights should never have been ahead of Neil.

Which was, you know, the crux of my joke earlier. Him magically making the side + another seamer ahead of those who should probably play.

 

[Maximas]

is vishwa fernando injured btw? im surprised we haven't seen him in the mix.

i've been known to be very insulting to sri lankan quicks, lakmal and rajitha in particular, but i like kumara and i've never seen fernando so i was hoping to.

also maybe they should be brave and give perera the opening job. given gunathilaka is still polluting their squads then that's unhelpful for project: bin thirimanne. also frees up a spot for chandimal who is actually good.

dimuth karunaratne
kusal perera
kusal mendis
angelo mathews
dinesh chandimal
dhananjaya de silva
niroshan dickwella
suranga lakmal
akila dhananjaya
vishwa fernando
lahiru kumara

i rate that batting, and that bowling could yet become something.

Problem is that Akila will be banned soon, Embuldeniya is pretty green now but he'll be a gun one day, tall, wily and crafty. Vishwa was fit and I think made the squad, but they opted for the extra pace of Kumara, I can understand that given Lakmal provides the line and length swing option, Vishwa is just a little more aggressive and provides the left arm option.

Either Kusal goes up the order (he and Dimuth seemed to connect well as a pair during the WC), or what I'd like to see is BOP Fernando given another run after his relative success in SA this time as an opener, Chandimal has to come back in at some point, it could well be at the expense of Kusal at this rate, outside of his 150 special he's not done a great deal at test level, must also keep Avishka Fernando in mind, has only really gunned it in ODIs at this point but he looks to be a seriously good talent. Roshen Silva is always around for home conditions too.

 

[NZTailender]

Sri Lanka are certainly an exciting prospect at the moment, in an odd sort of way. They're kind of like New Zealand a few years back - some gun players with a few passengers, and aimless management.

 

[Flem274*]

live stream of the warm up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5E...cCI_wCGJTsI2KinN-VEWHNWvpPvmLdPXXTAcsXgWSGOgU

 

[Flem274*]

their scorecard is wrong btw. they have bruce listed as out but it was seifert who just got stumped going by the name on the shirt. cricinfo thinks mitchell is in.

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

Think I can parse what the comms are saying, I believe Sethrance is some sort of spaceship.

 

[NZTailender]

Did Munro legit keep wicket? Haha

 

[Prince EWS]

Did Munro legit keep wicket? Haha

If that doesn't bring Hurricane back, nothing will.

 

[Prince EWS]

Wait, surely Seifert kept in that lineup.