*Official* England in NZ 2023

[nzfan]

1st class average of 40, and can do the Brook/Head/Iyer role at 5. Scored a 50 at the SCG in his one test. Also brings something different - tough, quirky and extremely innovative. I think Phillips would make a great captain in 2-3 years when Southee retires.

I also want to see Shipley play and the word is that Kohli's sister really rates him, so he must be good.

I would love to see Phillips play but a bit too many holes for red ball cricket, hard hands, very limited areas he can score ie the leg side and square on off, needs improvement vs spin, temperament etc... if you need a change of tempo and play bazzball then he's your man and first on the list I suppose but then our Gazzball is not going to accept bazzball so Phillips will be out before he'll start ?

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Fans would be yelling at you on twitter for leaving out Rohit Sharma and Lubuschagne no doubt. Stokes (c) over Ashwin is probably a better balance, except in turning conditions, so have him in the squad.

Stokes is certainly a better captain than Cummins too, and a MUCH better captain than Babar, but I think Ashwin is such an amazing bowler. I'd possibly have Braithwaite over Rohit and would have Root over Marnus (9 100s in 22 tests in Australia vs 1 100 in 13 tests outside Australia).

 

[Fuller Pilch]

I would love to see Phillips play but a bit too many holes for red ball cricket, hard hands, very limited areas he can score ie the leg side and square on off, needs improvement vs spin, temperament etc... if you need a change of tempo and play bazzball then he's your man and first on the list I suppose but then our Gazzball is not going to accept bazzball so Phillips will be out before he'll start ?

I'm also looking forward to the Otago middle order of Foxcroft, Phillips, and Chu being our 4-6 in 4 years with the traitorous Nathan Smith at 7.

 

[Shady Slim]

Stokes is certainly a better captain than Cummins too, and a MUCH better captain than Babar, but I think Ashwin is such an amazing bowler. I'd possibly have Braithwaite over Rohit and would have Root over Marnus (9 100s in 22 tests in Australia vs 1 100 in 13 tests outside Australia).

ok but how many hundreds does root have in australia huh

 

[nzfan]

I'm also looking forward to the Otago middle order of Foxcroft, Phillips, and Chu being our 4-6 in 4 years with the traitorous Nathan Smith at 7.

Foxcroft will play white ball cricket no doubt. GP will obviously play lot of cricket for NZ in all formats, Chu not so sure unless he can sort out playing short stuff which I think he'll.

All of that will have to wait, high chances Larsen and Stead will bring back Rutherford, Doug Bracewell, Tom Bruce next along with Chad Bowes.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

ok but how many hundreds does root have in australia huh

Not as many as the great Tom Blundell.

I was going to write the number of Root's ODI 100s in Oz but statsguru tells me that's 0 as well and he only averages 35 in ODIs in Oz. Anyway Babar is better than both of them in tests imo.

 

[Shady Slim]

Not as many as the great Tom Blundell.

I was going to write the number of Root's ODI 100s in Oz but statsguru tells me that's 0 as well and he only averages 35 in ODIs in Oz. Anyway Babar is better than both of them in tests imo.

correct, blundell is the greatest batsman in cricket at the moment

 

[Flem274*]

Foxcroft will play white ball cricket no doubt. GP will obviously play lot of cricket for NZ in all formats, Chu not so sure unless he can sort out playing short stuff which I think he'll.

All of that will have to wait, high chances Larsen and Stead will bring back Rutherford, Doug Bracewell, Tom Bruce next along with Chad Bowes.

Tbf at least Tom Bruce has scored the runs to justify a crack.

Runs aren't the currency for selection though, 'being liked' by whoever picks this team is.

 

[NZTailender]

Blundell has played a lot of those types of innings in the last 12 months

He has but it seemed like we had more than a few players who could pull out some gritty rear guard innings going back to mccullums triple. Williamson and Taylor could. Watling definitely could. CDG could bring about some counter attacking innings down the order. Nicholls, for the time he was good, could also bring those innings. Blundell and Mitchell did it in England last year, and Mitchell showed shades again in the second dig after going missing for a while. Seems like unless Devon gets a score we have to pin our hopes on the keeper.

 

[NZTailender]

I'm not sold on Phillips in red ball cricket. I'd love to be proved wrong and want to be proved wrong desperately as I like the lad. Unless he plays like Brook don't think he's going to be a long term prospect in red ball cricket. I know the lads I'm going to name are majorly from Wellington and maybe a bit biased having watched them lots but Sears, Fisher, Ravindra and Nathan Smith are players that are suited for this format. They should be drafted earlier than later. At whose cost I don't know but they should be on every squad list in future. Don't worry about their domestic numbers, they have what it takes.

Was curious and looked at what stage did the current players get a break for black caps. Different times I know but Nicholls was barely averaging 32 with couple of first class hundreds, Latham had scored no more than 2 first class hundreds averaging mid 30s, Kane mid 40s with couple of hundreds, Southee barely out of under 19s, Boult reasonable but not out of the world first class stats... they had a good eye for talent those days and backed the right horses. Now we've come to pick players aged 30 or over consistently, neither they come across as world beaters nor have the stats to back their spots. It's like fine, you've played 8 years or over of first class cricket so we'll reward you with a season. Love it that they still keep putting in the hard yards but if there are better players than them then tough luck.

See I don't get this line of thinking about Phillips. Guy is mentally a different prospect to some of the others floating around and that could serve us well. And how many red ball options do we have at the moment anyway? Seems daft to ignore a guy with talent and a fighting mindset because he doesn't immediately scream red ball cricket in his technique, when there aren't any other options banging the door down.

 

[Howe_zat]

Also Phillips has played only one test, in the 3rd test of an already lost series in Australia, against a full strength Aus attack, which is a pretty effective way to bin off a test cricketer forever in my experience (Mason Crane currently thinks of a red ball as roughly equivalent to a funnel web spider), but he actually came out of it with a bit of credit.

 

[GIMH]

As much as you **** on Thierry, at least he knows what a meter is.

Hey it was like 3am I’m just happy I used real words

 

[Flem274*]

Hey it was like 3am I’m just happy I used real words

I was impressed too.

 

[Flem274*]

See I don't get this line of thinking about Phillips. Guy is mentally a different prospect to some of the others floating around and that could serve us well. And how many red ball options do we have at the moment anyway? Seems daft to ignore a guy with talent and a fighting mindset because he doesn't immediately scream red ball cricket in his technique, when there aren't any other options banging the door down.

We also just got smoked around the park by guys told to just go smash it bro.

It's never a bad thing to have a guy in the top 6 or 7 with license to yeet it. We've had at least one guy for it ever since I've been watching (Cairns, Oram, McCullum, CdG and now Macewell. Astle and McMillan weren't known for blocking either). Very successful sides have had one or more of that sort of cricketer.

I don't think Phillips is a cure all either but he's a better batsman than Macewell. Unfortunately whoever actually runs this team is terrified of being remotely brave or accountable. Got a WTC trophy, job done, stop whinging seems to be the attitude judging by the Stead comments post-Bangers loss.

On that note, call me mad, but KW could do worse than whacking these English medium quicks back over their heads where they belong. The **** just blocks it these days, has for years. You're not Pujara ffs go watch your Brisbane and Perth 2015 knocks. Blundell and Mitchell don't have Kane or Conway's talent but in their recent good form they've refused to die in a hole against the English.

Gary Stead probably told him to dig in and fight hard like a good little kiwi battler.

 

[Ashes81]

England played the test match perfectly.

The key to the day/night tests is to get the opposition batting under the lights against the new ball.

We scored so quickly on day one, we were able to declare before 60 overs and then rip through the NZ top order.

NZ battled back really well through Blundell but again we engineered the game well for Broad to decide the game with 4 quick wickets.

There are parts of Bazball which as a traditionalist are tough to watch - Root's reverse sweeping the quicks, Brooks cross bat, baseball style slogging but it's all a means to an end and its another very impressive win.

Pretty much everyone in the side bar Crawley contributed and we've still got the likes of Bairstow, Archer and Wood to come back.

 

[FBU]

Think that NZ have the best batting attack of all teams.
In the last 3 years http://www.howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/TopTen.asp

 

[Howe_zat]

Think that NZ have the best batting attack of all teams.
In the last 3 years http://www.howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/TopTen.asp

A rating system that picks Liton Das over Steve Smith might not be something to set a huge amount of store by.

Even if it's just telling you who's been good over the last 3 years, Joe Root apperently doesn't make the top 10 even though he's made over 1000 more runs than anyone else and averaged more than half the list.

What is this system lol

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

England unbeaten in day/night Tests under Stokes though.

Still are.

 

[BoyBrumby]

I really wish I hadn't googled that. I suggest people don't. Ignorance is sometimes a good thing

Wise words.

Unfortunately I read Ed's post:

Can't really answer that question here, but a quick Google of his real name will probably give you the gist.

And was onto it before I read down to your sage advice.

I'm really not any happier for knowing any of that.

The "permanent name suppression" working well though...

 

[trundler]

Yep, I made that mistake too.