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

CharlesLara

U19 12th Man
Dunno about the rest of the Kiwi fans, but I'm riled up about the Bracewell thing because it reminds me of what was happening all the time in club cricket - spinner who's clearly much better (me) barely gets a bowl, but a chump (some 40 year old friend of the skip who turned to spin this season because his back was ****ed) gets his full ten and jags a wicket, instantly locking him in as first choice for the rest of the season.
I said it earlier in this thread, NZ team is officially run like club side with the undroppables (on current performance (Mitchell/Blundell OR past) and yes men.
I dunno about series-defining, but I definitely see the point (and didn't know Ajaz almost bowled him). The issue is, Kane is a poor captain of front-line spinners. Ajaz got tapped by Stokes, sure, but England lost their fifth wicket with more than 100 to get and he was never seen again with two RHers at the crease. Then he's dropped, for a guy who averaged 19 all summer. England's top order has 5 RHers out of 7, yet they went with the guy spinning it into them because he batted at 7. Lame. There's no doubt CdG's injury hurt us in that respect, but we had to have a back-up plan...and the one we chose was ****.

Leach was cooked in the Ashes. Now he thinks he's a hero. Probably how Ajaz felt in Mumbai last year, and now he'd feel like a net bowler. Actually now that I think about it, I bet Baz wanted Stokes to get after Ajaz in the knowledge Kane wouldn't bowl him, and he'd probably be dropped.
This. They went after both of them knowing that that ideally this put NZ a bowler down cause of the retreat first / lack of trust mentality.

Remember, even when we got Cowdrey Lecture Baz version of NZ, Mcullums style was always the plan A and they lived and died by it but they had players who could retreat and grind it out ala BJ and Kane. This side has relied on an overall defensive mentality in all aspects, safety first. There ain't no plan B, we end up with Henry doing the Wagner role and vice versa and NEITHER of them working, couple that with no spinner and youve effectly reduced NZ to Southee and Boult, who as great as Boult was and sometimes Southee, hell we had them 55-5 and couldnt do **** all about it and let a debutant score 97...
 

KungFu_Kallis

International 12th Man
Dunno.

But Ajaz has only really played one full test in non-favourable conditions. By once, I mean the captain not ignoring him if the seamers are dominating. That was in wellington when 2 Sri Lankans batted a whole 4th day undefeated with rain on fifth.

He's missed a lot of spinners' graveyards tests at e.g. Hagley and the Basin. Not something Vettori or J Bracewell (or Santner) etc got to do.

So, his record is probably conditions-biased in his favour.

12 months ago (pre his 14-fer, and after TBH), this seemed good management and use of overflowing bowling resources. Now, it's judged as undermining the poor man's confidence ... and Stead doesn't know what he's doing, Kane hates spinners.

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But, I sort of agree. I've never felt more confident in an NZ spinner bowling in Asia (or generally once it starts to turn, wherever) than I have in Ajaz. E.g. Him doing well in India last year didn't surprise me at all (I'm not saying a 10-fer didn't surprise me ...)
True, but it’s not like it’s been historically easy for visiting spinners to consistently take wickets in India against Indians who play it in their sleep. Ask Warnie. Oh wait
 

Moss

International Captain
Lol at everything being a Baz plan as if he's a 10-D chess master.
McCullum in many ways went the other extreme to KW in his handling of bowlers especially spinners, can remember him showing crazy levels of confidence in Mark Craig and Sodhi when they were getting tonked.

Not implausible that he would have noted how his own successor tends to handle spinners and discussed that with Stokes.
 

BoyBrumby

Englishman
Just switching to England for a second .... with Crawley's failures - is there any possible recall for Rory Burns in Bazball era? Thought he was pretty good tbh, scored tough hundreds even if he only averaged just over 30.
I think, in all equity, Ben Compton really must be the next cab off the opening rank. Currently sitting on 988 CC runs @ 98.80 for the season, with 4 tons and 5 50s from 13 innings.

His SR might not be the perfect (vomits quietly) Bazball match, but those are some pretty tidy looking returns.
 

nzfan

International Vice-Captain
What like a real life actual spinner? Bracewell is the some sort of bizarre real life example of off spin as an NFT, along with the Beast nickname and all. 6 and out type behaviour.

You're describing what they tell 14 year old spinners in academies all over the land, only problem is, Bracewell at 16/17 was a wicketkeeper batsman and, as you mentioned in a post earlier bowled himself more overs for Wellington to get a shot as well. We were being told he's in the side and has potential cause he has nice shape on the ball? What kind of nonsense is this LOL. I'm gonna ignore the fact we have a spinner whose sitting on the sidelines who has lead Plunket Shield wicket taking charts multiple times, is one of only 3 guys in the history of the game to take a 10fer, has bowled us to overseas victories and tbh, as much as we wanna find fault, Ajaz at his very worst is an accurate docile experienced spinner who you can at least SET A FIELD too. Two overs against a guy whose ruined far superiors bowlers in a mood that was pure gamble.. we ended up a bowler down AND STILL.

Now is Bracewell to blame for being in the squad and then being selected, definitely not. I think we can all agree that management and their risk averse mentality are the biggest culprits here, but we cannot fool ourselves into thinking this isn't what Bracewell wanted? He wasn't near ready, got sold the dream, lived it out and its not only hurt the side and but been at the expense of the the confidence of teammates. NOT blaming him, but I'm not quite in the "feel sorry Bracewell" camp either. Is he even a better bat or bowl than Rachin? I mean leessbereaaalll.
It was a bizarre decision no doubt. The skills isn't honed yet and two years of bowling spin in domestic/nets does not make you good enough for top level cricket. You can get away bowling in white ball as you don't need as good a consistency and the field is spread mostly. The dutch took him on in the 3rd game and he struggled to cope so the management should have known things can go wrong fairly quickly and it won't be easy to fix. They still ignored those and in fact lined him up for a central contract stating he's an all format player.

He can actually bat and in particular against spin. He is not hack by any means but god knows what they've told him. They probably wanted him to bat like Gilly and for that he doesn't have the skills needed to consistently perform with the bat. If he just bats normally like he does in plunkett shield he may be able to score some runs.

If I put myself in the management shoes, why would I pick him? I'd pick him because he can bat but if batting at no.8 it's a wasted opportunity. Secondly did they tell him play like you played in super smash? Well the bowling quality, the decks, the size of the ground and the format is all different so doesn't equate. Could have gone with one less batsman, batted him at 6 or 7 and told him to bat like a proper bat, not slog. They wouldn't play him any higher because they don't think he's good enough to bat in the top 6. Are they thinking he could be the next Sommerville? Sommerville before making the test side had played for nearly 18 years of domestic cricket and bowling was his primary job.

We have couple of left handers and on a dry surface like this they can create considerable rough which they have but then he's bowling around the wicket. Also what was his role in the side as a bowler? Was he there to bowl tightly and give our faster bowlers a rest? Or was he there to attack and even if he goes for runs (not 7s but more like 4s), look to take wickets? All England has to do is go after Wagner, we will be back bowling Boult and Southee. They have bowled a lot of overs in the series and towards the fag end it's natural they are less penetrative.

In all possible ways, it looks a hasty and an undercooked decision. Likely Bracewell also not briefed properly about his role as well.

Make no mistake the management will play him consistently till the time he's mentally cooked and unable to cope. He's in every squad possible. Nobody else is but he is. They made the decision to employ him on a central contract and they will do everything to keep giving him a go. Can you believe Sommerville or Seifert has never had a central contract? Ajaz was cut from the contract last year and was picked up this year in place of retired Ross. If there was a 4th test there is no doubt they will have played him again and Ajaz still warming the bench.

Hope he goes all right and ends the series on a good note. I still think they sold him a dream without telling him it's not going to be an easy ride or giving him tools to work with.
 

nzfan

International Vice-Captain
Despite all these chat about Bracewell, there is no way you can say one guy has influenced the state of this series. He should not be made a scapegoat. Yes it wasn't a great call to play him but that's only part of the problem. We haven't bowled a side out twice whether Bracewell played or not in this entire series (if you include the warm up games as well). We dropped a game against county select xi, a bunch of young county professionals. England batting was on a quick sand prior this series and now the roles are reversed. Just hope the management don't find one single player to shift the blame on and make him a scape goat like they have done recently. If they don't take a hard look at themselves and look to improve this will be as wasted a series review as they have reviewed the past 3-4 series. I think barring Darryl Mitchell, Devon Conway and Blundell, every other player needs to look at what their contribution has been and where they are heading. Applies even more to the coaches, selectors and management in general. High chances, the coach, selector and management will brush it under the carpet. Steady casually will comment, we need to lower our expectations as we're a small country, are short of talent and we're punching above our capacity. He'll quote we were very close to winning the series if couple of things went out way which is definitely not true.
 

Apex Predator

State Vice-Captain
A left arm spinner these days is much more useful to have in test cricket than an off spinner. It's a recent trend but it's becoming quite normal now. England have a right hand heavy middle order barring Stokes. Not playing Ajaz is obviously a blunder.
 

Chubb

International Regular
I think, in all equity, Ben Compton really must be the next cab off the opening rank. Currently sitting on 988 CC runs @ 98.80 for the season, with 4 tons and 5 50s from 13 innings.

His SR might not be the perfect (vomits quietly) Bazball match, but those are some pretty tidy looking returns.
another gift from Zimbabwe to the world of cricket.
 

slippy888

International Captain
The draw odds are 18/1 with this bad weather about, if new zealand bowled half decent yesterday england should have required at least 160 runs on day 5
 

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