*Unofficial* New Zealand Black Caps Thread

[pomnotenglish]

Why Tim Southee..why? Despite his stature in Test cricket, I don't get it why NZ persist with him in t20s. Over the last few years, that I have seen of him, he can't bowl at the death , consistently gets hammered and these things were on show again in yesterday's warmup match against Australia. Considering the wickets on display in the t20 world cup, he shouldn't be an automatic selection anyway and better to replace him with a spinner.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Why Tim Southee..why? Despite his stature in Test cricket, I don't get it why NZ persist with him in t20s. Over the last few years, that I have seen of him, he can't bowl at the death , consistently gets hammered and these things were on show again in yesterday's warmup match against Australia. Considering the wickets on display in the t20 world cup, he shouldn't be an automatic selection anyway and better to replace him with a spinner.

Would be much better to have Adam Milne

 

[Nintendo]

Why Tim Southee..why? Despite his stature in Test cricket, I don't get it why NZ persist with him in t20s. Over the last few years, that I have seen of him, he can't bowl at the death , consistently gets hammered and these things were on show again in yesterday's warmup match against Australia. Considering the wickets on display in the t20 world cup, he shouldn't be an automatic selection anyway and better to replace him with a spinner.

He's literally the only pacer in the world in the top 10 t20I bowling rankings, or was until recently for a fairly substantial period of time.

 

[Moss]

It's a decent squad but would look a lot better for the conditions if Latham and Patel were there. Milne and Allen too might be missed.

Other than Ferguson none of the NZers had a great time of it in the IPL, have to hope they click as a unit against the international sides. Last time around NZ topped a group which included India, Pakistan, Australia and Bangladesh; that plus his IPL captaincy experience means KW does know a thing or two about taking on subcontinent sides on their own turf.

 

[pomnotenglish]

He's literally the only pacer in the world in the top 10 t20I bowling rankings, or was until recently for a fairly substantial period of time.

If we take the statistical route, his highest ICC ranks as a t20I bowler have come in since 2019 (10th) , 2020(7th) 2021 ( 6th - best ever) and now sitting on 10th again as of date. However, with my limited knowledge as a cricket spectator and that too not being a NZlander, dare I say that in these years he has played only 3 matches outside NZ. ( in Pallekele, Sri Lanka). In short, he has been bowling in the same home conditions. Conditions in UAE and Oman are very different from NZ. I might be proved wrong and I hope I will be proved wrong and Southee will do really well in the tournament but my moot point is that NZ have definitely got players that they can try out at his expense and given the conditions where they are playing it doesn't seem like a bad idea.

 

[SteveNZ]

No, it's a fair point and I don't think a lot of us would have him in the XI unless it looks like there's going to be sideways movement and bounce (ie grass). I'm happy that he can be a wicket taker up front, but we've seen he's cannon fodder later on, on flat decks.

It's a decent squad but would look a lot better for the conditions if Latham and Patel were there. Milne and Allen too might be missed.

Milne is in our best XI, unfortunate timing there really that he kicked on massively in England and the IPL after we'd picked the squad.

I think we'd all swap Patel for Astle now, and Allen's time will come - they weren't going to pick him to play in Asia when they had no idea of his ability to play the turning ball on slow decks.

I just don't see the batting firepower nor the quality from our 4th and 5th bowlers to be a force. I think one of the key figures is Glenn Phillips. He needs a massive tournament for us to be competitive.

 

[Pup Clarke]

This is going to be pretty unpopular but Boult wouldn't get in my XI now. Think in the UAE there are better options and NZ are blessed with a plethora of spinners
Guptill, Conway, Kane, Mitchell, Philipps, Neesham, Santner, Southee, Astle, Sodhi, Ferguson for me

 

[SteveNZ]

Boult was outstanding the other night. His slower ball bouncer is so hard to hit. There was definitely a time I reconsidered whether he was in our best XI but not now

 

[Immenso]

Don't hold out much hope. We don't have much power batting.

I don't follow T20 very closely. Listened to this podcast the other day.

CricViz Cricket Podcast: New Zealand World Cup Squad Announcement - CricViz

Ben Jones and Freddie Wilde look at the 15-man group selected for Kane Williamson's campaign.

www.cricviz.com

Mirrored my thoughts that omitting Milne plus at least one of either Allen/Munro is just plain weird if not dumb.
It's a bit damning when they make comparisons to South Africa's squad, as in it could have been much better ... except we don't have quotas.

I'd have Milne plus Allen in the starting 11, let alone squad.

Anyway. With the squad we have. Maybe if they become turgid worn-out pitches, we have enough 'proper' batting to put some scores on. But I'd assume other teams have enough quality spinners and batsman who can hit spin ... that bit better than us.

P.S. After the Pak tour pull-out. The players association position on preventing Chapman and Astle from going to Bangladesh is just that even more completely utterly flippin bonkers. Idiots.

 

[Bahnz]

I'm sorry, but why is Allen such a slam dunk selection? His performances in last years Super Smash were undeniably fantastic, but asides from that he had an extremely ropey intl debut v Bangladesh, a mediocre Hundred campaign, and a couple of good but hardly outstanding innings on club-standard wickets in Bangladesh. I think Allen has a big future (in t20's), but I don't really see how he deserves to elbow his way into a top 4 with Conway, Guptill, KW and Phillips.

 

[SteveNZ]

Nah, Allen was never going to be picked. However, I do see people's points - that they want the option for a power hitter at the top of the order. A 60 off 30 guy, even a 30 off 12 guy. Gup is not that guy, starts way too slow. Conway we don't want to be that guy, Kane isn't that guy, then Phillips bats at 4-5. To be fair, that's seldom been Munro either. I think people pine for someone who is prepared to hit bowlers completely off their line as Baz used to do.

 

[Moss]

Milne is in our best XI, unfortunate timing there really that he kicked on massively in England and the IPL after we'd picked the squad.

I think we'd all swap Patel for Astle now, and Allen's time will come - they weren't going to pick him to play in Asia when they had no idea of his ability to play the turning ball on slow decks.

I just don't see the batting firepower nor the quality from our 4th and 5th bowlers to be a force. I think one of the key figures is Glenn Phillips. He needs a massive tournament for us to be competitive.

Yup, as noted in your latest post, I was looking at Allen mostly from the hit-the-bowlers-off-their-length a-la Mcullum POV. His last innings in Bangladesh was 41 off 24, and it went a long way towards giving the others some breathing space. He didn't look a chump against spin at all though like a lot of others he could do with a bit more shot selectivity.

Phillips I agree is key, but I watched a couple of his innings in the IPL and he wasn't adapting to slower surfaces at all, was looking to hit across the line most of the time on slow and low decks and was out bowled a couple of times. Not sure how comparable the Caribbean is to UAE surfaces but I'm hoping his CPL record is an indication he has the game to succeed here.

 

[Flem274*]

im finding it hard to care. this world cup is more about keeping our players t20 market value high for swindling cash from worthless franchises than actually something new zealand need to win.

jamieson shouldn't play on merit but hesson did his job - conned some moron into buying him and setting him up for life. now he can afford to play test cricket forever.

 

[Moss]

I don't follow T20 very closely. Listened to this podcast the other day.

CricViz Cricket Podcast: New Zealand World Cup Squad Announcement - CricViz

Ben Jones and Freddie Wilde look at the 15-man group selected for Kane Williamson's campaign.

www.cricviz.com

Cheers, that might actually be the best preview of a NZ squad before a major tournament I've read/heard from a non-NZ source (though par for the course with CricViz maybe). Most of the time they betray a lack of knowledge or basic research. Aside from them (Freddie Wilde?) thinking NZ missed a trick by not selecting de Grandhomme, I thought they made good points all around.

 

[TheBrand]

Still dont think Southee or Jamieson make my preferred XI. I'm probably going with

Guptill, Conway, KW, Phillips, Neesham, Chapman, Seifert, Santner, Sodhi, Ferguson, Boult.

 

[Chewie]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1450765230720503811

 

[Chewie]

nice

 

[Flem274*]

He finally got it!

 

[Chewie]

Is the number 69 banned for the Blackcaps? | The Spinoff

 

[Moss]

66 for 1 in the 7th over to 103 for 9, that must’ve been fun to watch. At least Guptill got a good hit. KW didn’t bat.