*Official* New Zealand in Australia 2019/20

[straw man]

Perth was the place to play Somerville tbh. Not that it would've made a difference to the result, but he could've used the bounce to his advantage and even one wicket from the overs Santner bowled on day one would've helped a lot.

Doubt he'd get much assistance in Melbourne (assuming wicket is slow) so I'm not too bothered that he hasn't been flown in for that. Might be interesting again for Sydney though.

 

[Immenso]

I'd been thinking for a while that Seiffert would actually be the perfect utility player to have on tour in the Blundell role.

As he actually covers opener, 3, middle order, and keeper/lower order. Where as Blundell covers only 2 of this roles.

However, his keeping maybe not of high enough standard to dislodge Blundell based on his televised Blackcaps T20 outings.

I'm not complaining, just musing.

Seiffert maybe too utility.
Young too injured.
Ravindra too raw.
Rutherford too turtle.

Blundell a beneficiary of timing, and selectors thinking they are smart but actually just painting themselves in corners.

Anyway Kia Kaha Tom. May you Brian Young and Lou Vincent your way to further opportunity.

 

[SteveNZ]

If Larsen & co had been watching the '85 series highlights on Sky they would see that NZ flew over Bracewell from club cricket because the SCG was such a raging Bunsen. He played along with the other two spinners in the squad, but then played ahead of both the original squad spinners in the deciding test in Perth. In homage to that great series win it would be fitting to fly in Sommerville.

The All Blacks did the same with Mike Brewer who happened to be in France doing promotional work for Canterbury and got picked ahead of Liam Barry who was in the touring squad.

And if memory serves, Matt Henry at the 2011 World Cup playing ahead of Mills, McClenaghan etc in the original squad, when Milne went down.

A previous poster was right, squad for both series at home and here was pointless.

 

[The Hutt Rec]

It’s been handled about as badly as it could have been, barring Doull taking over as selector and sending Mitchell or Santner in to open.

But what else do you expect from Larsen after all this time. I’m thankful they’ve at least punted Raval.

 

[NZTailender]

In 6 or 7 years time we might be talking about who is going to replace Blundell as opener as he's retiring, commenting on how his career really took off in Aus.

One can dream.

 

[_Ed_]

But then, of course, they might try a whole series of insane punts with the rationale of, "Hey, it worked with Blundell!"

 

[SteveNZ]

In 6 or 7 years time we might be talking about who is going to replace Blundell as opener as he's retiring, commenting on how his career really took off in Aus.

One can dream.

Maybe. Hopefully. We can dream. But he hasn't been set up for success. He's being asked to walk out on Boxing Day with basically zero experience in the role at any level. A hugely specialist role. Against the best attack nigh on in the world. If he makes it, itll be to do with his inner strength and ability to adapt, and in spite of poor selectorial practice.

 

[Athlai]

I'm pretty sure Blundell is going to be crowd surfing the NZ contingent of the boxing day crowd after his back to back hundreds and MOTM performance.

 

[Meridio]

What do we do though when Blundell pulls off twin hundreds? Keep him there for the next test? And the next series - he becomes our first choice opener? How about if he makes 40 and 30?

 

[Athlai]

What do we do though when Blundell pulls off twin hundreds? Keep him there for the next test? And the next series - he becomes our first choice opener? How about if he makes 40 and 30?

Keep him there for a year at least in either scenario

 

[SteveNZ]

What do we do though when Blundell pulls off twin hundreds? Keep him there for the next test? And the next series - he becomes our first choice opener? How about if he makes 40 and 30?

Both he stays as Athlai says. But what if he fails twice? He has to get Sydney too. Then if he doesn't score runs this series, do they go to a specialist opener for India at home?

 

[Shady Slim]

Perth was the place to play Somerville tbh. Not that it would've made a difference to the result, but he could've used the bounce to his advantage and even one wicket from the overs Santner bowled on day one would've helped a lot.

Doubt he'd get much assistance in Melbourne (assuming wicket is slow) so I'm not too bothered that he hasn't been flown in for that. Might be interesting again for Sydney though.

if he does come on for you guys in sydney you have to bring him in for santner fwiw the two spinners at sydney thing is purely a meme now

 

[Pup Clarke]

It's really worth emphasising just how stupid a decision it was to select a team for both the England and Australia series at once. I can't work out what actual good logical reason there is for doing that. It leaves you open to exactly this kind of selection dilemma, plus also the one we have with Santner - really, the right thing to do for the good of the team right now would be to pick Somerville and get him over there, but we already have Astle selected as an alternative spin option and having another player who wasn't in the original squad leapfrog him is really bad selection policy, but then Astle would get mauled on a flat MCG pitch so what do you do?

That said, I reckon Blundell will go well actually. Good back foot game and has stepped up strongly the few times he's been called upon.

Boom! It was completely idiotic. On this alone I'm worried about Stead/Larsen's credentials

 

[NZTailender]

Boom! It was completely idiotic. On this alone I'm worried about Stead/Larsen's credentials

WC Final has probably put them in good stead (guffaw) for a while

 

[ataraxia]

if he does come on for you guys in sydney you have to bring him in for santner fwiw the two spinners at sydney thing is purely a meme now

Somers won't get selected if they aren't going to bring over a specialist opener (and plus Santner's off the back of a good test).

 

[aussie tragic]

With all the talk about the NZ openers, it's nice to know that Warner and Burns are now averaging 50.26 for opening partnership. This is better than Warner-Rogers (50.06) and is closing in on Taylor-Slater (51.14) and Hayden-Langer (51.41)

 

[Daemon]

With all the talk about the NZ openers, it's nice to know that Warner and Burns are now averaging 50.26 for opening partnership. This is better than Warner-Rogers (50.06) and is closing in on Taylor-Slater (51.14) and Hayden-Langer (51.41)

Is there an away series in there somewhere because I thought it’d me much higher by this point

 

[GoodAreasShane]

Sri Lanka 2016?

 

[aussie tragic]

Sri Lanka 2016?

And NZ in Feb 2016 before the SL tour

 

[GoodAreasShane]

And NZ in Feb 2016 before the SL tour

Not really. That Sri Lanka series Warner and Burns had partnerships of 3, 2, 0 and 3. That's what drags the overall average down significantly.


Having checked that series went even worse than I remembered