*Official* New Zealand in England 2021

[Kippax]

BBC forecasts 14-day heatwave and 26C heat to hit London

The capital is set to bask in a 14-day heatwave which could see temperatures reach 26C later this week.

www.mylondon.news

As the summer weather we've all been waiting is finally here, London is set to bask in up to 26C heat this week following the glorious bank holiday weekend.

Starting from today (Monday, May 31), temperatures are predicted to soar to the mid-twenties, while BBC weather reports the capital can expect highs of 26C on Wednesday.

The long-awaited heatwave comes after a month of heavy rainfall and lower than average temperatures throughout May.

 

[Starfighter]

'Heatwave'? 'Soar' to the mid twenties?

FFS even by English standards that's hyperbolic.

 

[Mike5181]

The English are melting!

 

[CricAddict]

I think both will play for the first test at least, along with Overton to avoid the horrors of Broad at #8, cos, y'know, it's not still 2010.

Could see a four man seam attack, with presumably one of the genuine quicks for variety.

My guess:

Sibley
Burns
Crawley
Root*
Lawrence
Pope
Bracey+
Overton
Broad
Wood
Anderson

Been a bit under a rock. Is Sam Curran not selected nowadays? Also where is Woakes?

 

[Prince EWS]

Been a bit under a rock. Is Sam Curran not selected nowadays? Also where is Woakes?

England decided to rest their IPL guys. Buttler out too for the same reason.

 

[Bahnz]

In all honesty, I think Stead has always been a little spooked about how long the tail has looked when Ajaz plays in the side, so I think his odds of playing are very low. Will most likely be CdG and Santner at 6 and 7, provided CdG is up to bowling 10 overs a day.

 

[Prince EWS]

In all honesty, I think Stead has always been a little spooked about how long the tail has looked when Ajaz plays in the side, so I think his odds of playing are very low. Will most likely be CdG and Santner at 6 and 7, provided CdG is up to bowling 10 overs a day.

I assume you meant 7 and 8?

 

[Bahnz]

I assume you meant 7 and 8?

Yup

 

[Bahnz]

Yes Ravindra is maybe a realistic chance on the right pitch. His current bowling average of 58 has actually been falling sharply from a very comical one 12 months ago. Yet to deliver that '25 overs for under 50' type of first-class scorecard that a cautious KW would probably want to see, but he's already had 11 NZA four-dayers since 2018. A 42 batting avg in those, included a good 70 in a 226 total against the full Pakistan, 12 wickets @ 62 and a 3.74 ER with the ball.

Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I like a side with Rachin opening, Conway at 4, Nicholls being dropped (bad luck, but he needs a bit of that to balance out last summer) and 5 seamers. Never gonna happen but I wouldn't be opposed if it did.

 

[Kippax]

Well he's not really one for impeccable leaving of a swinging ball half a yard outside off, Rachin. You'd have been taking a punt on the warmth and blue skies in the forecast.

 

[hendrix]

Well he's not really one for impeccable leaving of a swinging ball half a yard outside off, Rachin. You'd have been taking a punt on the warmth and blue skies in the forecast.

Well i know Anderson is a master around the wicket but does England have a left arm swing bowler like that?

It's just quite a different prospect

 

[nzfan]

And probably he smashed the Canty bowlers around the park in-between including Nutall. Was it a hundred or a near hundred that day?

 

[Kippax]

Well your posting in particular has really got to get a bit less warm and fuzzy on Rachin. You're becoming a bit like 2013 Grant Bradburn became with Ish Sodhi's prospects of taking the international Test stage by storm.

 

[nzfan]

Not saying he's perfect, no one is but better than a lot of our openers. That game firebirds lost but I think Ravindra scored. Will Williams and Fraser Sheat owned him this season. He was worked over time. Watched a game couple of seasons ago at basin and now retired McEwan knocked him over twice cheaply. Always wondered why Ravindra and Young struggle to 120k nibblers. Particularly coming from Wellington.

There's a lot of negativity about our players on this website I'm trying to be positive. Young can't play innies, Allen is a slogger, Santner can't bowl, Rosco is done, the list is long... I'd rather hear what they can do than what they can't really and they're capable otherwise they won't be playing for Black caps.

For sure I may be annoying as hell rating our players. This is like golden era right now. I'd rather be upbeat about our players and if they don't go well so be it but I'd rather not knock them off already.

 

[Flem274*]

i would try to avoid debuting ravindra in england because, kippax vs nzfan ideological debate aside, england is a vicious place to debut a young opener.

from what i've seen, ravindra is a stroke player. aggressive openers do not enjoy english conditions, even the good ones. if he had to debut on tour soon i would actually target india - the new ball is one of the better times to bat on a traditional indian deck* and being a spin bowling allrounder he would actually have a reasonable opportunity to be very useful.

in saying all this, ravindra's selection would finally get rid of the lesser player in santner and allow conway to slide into his traditional 3-5 position.

*if it's a joe root 5fer style deck then no time is good to bat but whatevs

 

[Flem274*]

Not saying he's perfect, no one is but better than a lot of our openers. That game firebirds lost but I think Ravindra scored. Will Williams and Fraser Sheat owned him this season. He was worked over time. Watched a game couple of seasons ago at basin and now retired McEwan knocked him over twice cheaply. Always wondered why Ravindra and Young struggle to 120k nibblers. Particularly coming from Wellington.

this just convinces me im right to avoid debuting him in england as an opener tbh. will williams and fraser sheat would take serious poles in county cricket. they're perfect for it.

kookaburra ball, harder and flatter decks. this combination more than anything has probably prepared young nz cricketers for test matches better than any academy ever could for a variety of reasons, but it has all but erased the chris drum, lance hamilton and tama canning from the environment, and in doing so removed the exposure of our younger batsmen to the medium pacer ambush.

cdg, will williams and matt mcewan are three of the final high skill holdouts, but they're the exception and partially aided by the recent "dukaburra".

 

[nzfan]

Same, I don't think he should be picked ahead of Darryl, CDG or even Santner on this tour. He's still got some distance to go. His time will come not yet. Not ready as a bowler but from what I've seen he's got the skills but not enough consistency. Good to keep him in the squad though.

I think it's not good to discard Ajaz, Santner, Young, Blundell, Darryl, CDG. They have to get in first and a decent run should be given to each one. They haven't put a foot wrong, maybe Santner has but he's got to be given a go consistently outside of NZ before you rule him out of red ball in the long term.

That said the word from the squad is for a rookie in the intra squad game he looked gold. Got a serious nod from everyone. Handled the likes of Jamieson, Henry, Ajaz etc and scored at a good clip as an opener. That's really good though although it was an inter squad game. Going out to open and facing those form bowlers and in the first ever hit in UK is great to see. We couldn't say that about our youngsters a decade ago. No cushion given just because they're young. Great to see from the management.

 

[Moss]

i would try to avoid debuting ravindra in england because, kippax vs nzfan ideological debate aside, england is a vicious place to debut a young opener.

from what i've seen, ravindra is a stroke player. aggressive openers do not enjoy english conditions, even the good ones. if he had to debut on tour soon i would actually target india - the new ball is one of the better times to bat on a traditional indian deck* and being a spin bowling allrounder he would actually have a reasonable opportunity to be very useful.

in saying all this, ravindra's selection would finally get rid of the lesser player in santner and allow conway to slide into his traditional 3-5 position.

*if it's a joe root 5fer style deck then no time is good to bat but whatevs

My thoughts re: Ravindra exactly, only have to think back to Warner in the 2019 Ashes, India a better place to start. Having said that it'll be a massive challenge for Conway too if he opens in these 3 tests.

Not opposed to Ravindra playing these tests in the allrounder's spot though. Anyday a better selection that Santner for mine (was a bit surprised to see nzfan's post about using these tests as a chance to evaluate Santner, in his last two series abroad in Aus and SL he was a complete waste of space).

 

[nzfan]

My thoughts re: Ravindra exactly, only have to think back to Warner in the 2019 Ashes, India a better place to start. Having said that it'll be a massive challenge for Conway too if he opens in these 3 tests.

Not opposed to Ravindra playing these tests in the allrounder's spot though. Anyday a better selection that Santner for mine (was a bit surprised to see nzfan's post about using these tests as a chance to evaluate Santner, in his last two series abroad in Aus and SL he was a complete waste of space).

The reasoning behind my take is that Santner is there because they believe he can contribute. Ajaz was ready for the mount game vs Pakistan but they played Santner ahead of him. Can't remember the exact runs Santner got but he did score some runs and looked better than before with the bat. I remember the game at mount vs England, he scored a hundred and took few wickets as well.

His record at home is not too bad but not good overseas. Maybe it's time to give him the two tests and see if he has improved. If he hasn't then move on. If he doesn't play any, he'll be there in every squad we'll pick in future and waste a spot. I'd rather see him play succeed and play for a long time or be ousted and bring in someone like Rippon as a backup while Ravindra gets a go in future.

 

[nzfan]

Moving on... Who's going to be the 12th man? With the concussion sub available in tests even picking the 12th man becomes important. Can we pick anyone from the wider squad and replace the concussed player as long as it's like for like or have to nominate one or two players? What's the rule?