*Official* New Zealand in England 2021

[Jack1]

Bracey rapidly turning into an all-time bad selection

He looks completely out of sorts. But he is 4th choice keeper. He has only batted 3 times. You probably want a player to bat 15-20 times in tests before you know for sure what they are capable of at this level - at that point the average becomes a strong indicator. He won't play again for a long time considering the chances of neither Buttler, Bairstow and Foakes being available at once again is practically nil. 36 average in FC isn't bad, it would suggest he hasn't played as well as he is capable of. Shame about the drop earlier though.

 

[MW1304]

england just gotta swing for the 100-150 lead and hope for the anderson/broad meme spell nz have thus far escaped. thus far.

didnt know this. fair enough. i guess everything about bracey's selection in this role screams selectors getting too cute.

I don't think we can take his performance in these Tests as any sort of gauge as to his ability tbh. He's clearly just had a case of the yips and it's affected his entire game.

He batted three in a FC game they showed on Sky recently and looked a perfectly decent batsman in tough conditions. Think he was the only one to get any sort of score.

Edit: He batted four and got 75, but yeah. I mean clearly the mental scars of this experience, and maybe just difficulty dealing with this level of exposure/pressure, don't suggest a long Test career ahead.

 

[Jack1]

Judging the whole top 6 batting line up as a whole they all average 33 or less apart from Root. Not ideal and debatable whether any of them are good enough batters at this level. Ideally you want your front line batsmen averaging 40 plus. And Stokes to come back in only averages 37. Burns did well before his duck but I'm not exactly convinced by him. Are there better options though? Hameed is an option and whilst he did perform in the 3 tests he played he's averaging under 33 in FC cricket which suggests long term he is very unlikely to be good enough at this level. Short term he is a potential replacement for Crawley at 3.

I don't think we can take his performance in these Tests as any sort of gauge as to his ability tbh. He's clearly just had a case of the yips and it's affected his entire game.

He batted three in a FC game they showed on Sky recently and looked a perfectly decent batsman in tough conditions. Think he was the only one to get any sort of score.

Yes along with my previous post suppose changing to a different position in the order completely ****s some players up. He might be one of them. I don't think it's ideal either he's kept less than 20 times in his FC career either. He must feel out of his comfort zone. Not making excuses though. If you get selected for England you're supposed to be the finished article already and expected to perform. He has only batted 3 times though, tiny sample size to judge a player on.

 

[BoyBrumby]

it's probably the most robotic and least empathetic selection england have made in 10 years

Yeah, it's a smeller.

I don't want to bag the lad, not his fault he was picked, but he's just not a test cricketer currently.

I've been trying to think of worse calls in the last decade, and the only ones that come close are Simon Kerrigan (who was at least picked when the Ashes was safely in the old sky rocket), an injured Boyd Rankin and Mason Crane.

The last two were both selected on the last tests of lost Ashes series, when the selectors tend to get a little funkeh.

But Bracey was picked for the first two tests of an English summer. I mean, I honestly don't know what the thought process was.

 

[Flem274*]

it looks so flat out there sometimes. promote wood to #3.

Yeah, it's a smeller.

I don't want to bag the lad, not his fault he was picked, but he's just not a test cricketer currently.

I've been trying to think of worse calls in the last decade, and the only ones that come close are Simon Kerrigan (who was at least picked when the Ashes was safely in the old sky rocket), an injured Boyd Rankin and Mason Crane.

The last two were both selected on the last tests of lost Ashes series, when the selectors tend to get a little funkeh.

But Bracey was picked for the first two tests of an English summer. I mean, I honestly don't know what the thought process was.

some of those were on tour during panic stations too. more understandable.

 

[Jack1]

On cricinfo people were selecting Henry over Wagner for the next test. Some people don't seem to understand averages and long term performance at all compared to one game. Think it would be crazy to select Henry over Wagner for India based on one match.

 

[grecian]

Judging the whole top 6 batting line up as a whole they all average 33 or less apart from Root. Not ideal and debatable whether any of them are good enough batters at this level. Ideally you want your front line batsmen averaging 40 plus. And Stokes to come back in only averages 37. Burns did well before his duck but I'm not exactly convinced by him. Are there better options though? Hameed is an option and whilst he did perform in the 3 tests he played he's averaging under 33 in FC cricket which suggests long term he is very unlikely to be good enough at this level. Short term he is a potential replacement for Crawley at 3.


Yes along with my previous post suppose changing to a different position in the order completely ****s some players up. He might be one of them. I don't think it's ideal either he's kept less than 20 times in his FC career either. He must feel out of his comfort zone. Not making excuses though. If you get selected for England you're supposed to be the finished article already and expected to perform. He has only batted 3 times though, tiny sample size to judge a player on.

Yes, very ideally, but TBH, this is England, and not sure we've had that other than that brief golden period, with Cook, Stauss, Trott Etc. for my entire torturous time watching us, would be happy with a team that averaged about 36 between them, with maybe a couple of outstanding ones. Yet since that "golden generation" has retired, been sacked, had off-field problems we have had an huge turnover of players and haven't managed anything like. Sometimes I feel we just might not have the players...

 

[Flem274*]

this is an area where nz need to improve. the tail should not be wagging so hard.

 

[Jack1]

If England held on to their catches they’d still have a sniff guessing the catches cost 100 runs (not worked it out) but not a hope in hell of winning from here

 

[Moss]

Wood had done so well playing sensibly up to that point. Not a good idea engaging Neil in Wagnerball.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Well I don't think one can blame Wood too much given the match situation, but in isolation that wasn't a great shot.

 

[Apex Predator]

I think their batting approach is quite defensive. NZ quicks have bowled really well but the top order has not made serious effort to counter attack. Pope does that for a bit but on the other side there is a blockathon.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Ha. Can NZ take the extra half hour if Jimmeh goes quickly?

 

[grecian]

If Beefy was still commentating, he'd be talking about a declaration, as he'd have already booked his tee-time tomorrow.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

New Zealand have dominated this series. They appear to have a very solid group of Test cricketers. But we’re ****.

 

[sunilz]

So what would NZ fans have preferred more if given only 1 choice?

1. ODI WC 2019
2. Test series win in ENG.

 

[MW1304]

New Zealand have dominated this series. They appear to have a very solid group of Test cricketers. But we’re ****.

Yeah they're just a substantially better team.

 

[wpdavid]

First series defeat at home since 2014 loading for mighty England

Yeah, this cropped up the other day. My response then was that, to differing degrees, we were lucky not to lose to India in 2018 and to Australia in 2019. And we'd have lost to Pakistan if Buttler and Woakes hadn't produced a once in a generation partnership. Our luck wasn't going to last forever, and individual heroics weren't always going to cover up the deteriorating quality of the newer players and the inevitable diminishing powers of the oldest players.

 

[nightprowler10]

Oh man. I stopped watching for a couple of hours and England get blown away.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

I woke up in the night feeling annoyed as I followed NZ's collapse and now I've seen the score. Yes boys. Well done bowlers