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*Official* 2022 New Zealand Tour of England, Ireland, Scotland & Netherlands

F

Fuller Pilch

Hall of Fame Member
Watling had good performances in the subcontinent with both bat and gloves, whereas Blundell had a horror tour of India. Also Watling was a part of 3 legendary partnerships for NZ (with McCullum, with Williamson, and with Santner). CW voted Watling the 3rd or 4th best keeper-batsman of all time, so it is big shoes to fill but Blundell has been doing extremely well on this tour.
 
S

SteveNZ

Cricketer Of The Year
Flem274* said:
This is a huge call. Watling's brick wall/opener at 6 attributes were part of the bedrock for NZ success. He's one of the best ever not called Gilchrist.
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It's a huge call but I hear the basis of it. Tom Blundell can flat out play. BJ was a street fighter, who won or saved matches with his sheer bloody-mindedness. And us as fans, we love that ****. Tom is a different player, who could win Test matches for his country in different ways (and should have last week). He's played some outstanding knocks - the ton on debut, the major one at the G in 2019, v SA last summer and twice + counting in England. I think they're going to both have strong impacts, and maybe history will remember BJ because he scored his runs when the chips were down and we romanticise about that. But it shouldn't be forgotten that Tom did that last week, and is doing it here again, and probably has an extra gear than BJ in being able to score at a high strike rate and help us capitalise on situations where putting the hammer down gets us ahead of the game. Maybe his glovework isn't quite up to BJs, but he's a very solid keeper. I like Blundell and anyone who wants to talk him up as having the ability to be talked about in the same breath as BJ by the end of his career has my support. I reckon it'll only be the manner in which they go about their cricket that might separate them - given Tom's average is 2 runs less than BJs.
 
Flem274*

Flem274*

123/5
SteveNZ said:
It's a huge call but I hear the basis of it. Tom Blundell can flat out play. BJ was a street fighter, who won or saved matches with his sheer bloody-mindedness. And us as fans, we love that ****. Tom is a different player, who could win Test matches for his country in different ways (and should have last week). He's played some outstanding knocks - the ton on debut, the major one at the G in 2019, v SA last summer and twice + counting in England. I think they're going to both have strong impacts, and maybe history will remember BJ because he scored his runs when the chips were down and we romanticise about that. But it shouldn't be forgotten that Tom did that last week, and is doing it here again, and probably has an extra gear than BJ in being able to score at a high strike rate and help us capitalise on situations where putting the hammer down gets us ahead of the game. Maybe his glovework isn't quite up to BJs, but he's a very solid keeper. I like Blundell and anyone who wants to talk him up as having the ability to be talked about in the same breath as BJ by the end of his career has my support. I reckon it'll only be the manner in which they go about their cricket that might separate them - given Tom's average is 2 runs less than BJs.
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I think Blundell is a good player too but it's premature to compare him to Watling and Blundell was deservedly under pressure going into this series. Cleaver and Fletcher are good players and deserved an opportunity if Blundell continued to underperform.

Blundell succeeding when we gutless threw him to the wolves at the MCG won me into his corner for a long time even though I'm a Cleaver supporter, so I've always hoped he would do good.
 
Flem274*

Flem274*

123/5
Also I'm willing to wait on the Mitchell/CdG/Nicholls question. All 3 deserve retention in the squad. Whether Pakistan select a leggie might be key (not to mention Kane's availability with that elbow).

I'm just happy the 5-7 zone is performing to date after looking a bit vulnerable last year.
 
F

Fuller Pilch

Hall of Fame Member
Flem274* said:
Also I'm willing to wait on the Mitchell/CdG/Nicholls question. All 3 deserve retention in the squad. Whether Pakistan select a leggie might be key (not to mention Kane's availability with that elbow).

I'm just happy the 5-7 zone is performing to date after looking a bit vulnerable last year.
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Also depends on how the Bracewell experiment goes.
 
Lillian Thomson

Lillian Thomson

Hall of Fame Member
Hoping for an early breakthrough and to roll them for under 370, and then Joe Root needs to make a big hundred and get decent support.
I've always been a dreamer. :tooth:
 
wpdavid

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
TheJediBrah said:
I can't see how that would be a "joke" in any way? I have no reason to lie, and to reiterate, given that I am well aware of previous discussions on here re. Mental health and prayers like Trott and how they progressed, I'm not dumb enough to express such a controversial opinion openly here even if I did feel that way.

This is honestly the first I've heard anything of Trescothick actually having health issues. The story I've always been aware of was that he got homesick more than most players and it lead to his early retirement.
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The strange thing about Trescothick was that his overseas performances were at an absolute peak when black dog kicked in around the end of 2005. He'd just made a massive hundred in Pakistan, having made a couple of huge tons in SA the previous winter. I don't think it was homesickness per se, I think it was anxiety/depression. But might be wrong. Whereas Harmison could barely cope with being anywhere south of Ashington, never mind overseas.
 
wpdavid

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
Lillian Thomson said:
Hoping for an early breakthrough and to roll them for under 370, and then Joe Root needs to make a big hundred and get decent support.
I've always been a dreamer. :tooth:
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Well, the new ball's everything this morning, isn't it. Without a couple of early wickets, NZ are heading for 500 and unless Root does his thing again we're looking at an innings defeat.
 
wpdavid

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
Uppercut said:
It’s so hard to see England coming back from a bad day in the field. When they get bowled out for not much it always still feels like they have a chance.
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It all come down to you-know-who. If Root goes big then we may stay in the game, but otherwise we're toast. Not a good way to play test cricket.
 
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Moss

Moss

International Captain
Guess England will be looking to inflict some new (ish) ball damage much like in the 2nd innings at Lord’s. Hopefully these two can blunt the threat early on so that not a whole lot depends on Bracewell and the rest.
 
wpdavid

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
Lillian Thomson said:
I know very little about the ability of Michael Bracewell, but I do remember his uncle Brendon making his debut in 1978. I suddenly realised there are people only a couple of years older than me playing Test Cricket. :tooth:
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I remember Norman Cowans being the first England test cricketer to be younger than me.
 
wpdavid

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
Starfighter said:
What's really depressing is when you realise there are people younger than you playing test cricket.
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Even worse when there aren't any at all who are older than you. I think that happened for me after Emburey's brief recall in 1995. Gooch and Gatting having left the test scene earlier that year.
 
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