Great player despite the embarrassing overseas record. Hopefully he has a few strong tours against good teams to cement his status as a non htb great.Over the last 10 years Kane has averaged a fraction under 60 with the bat. 2013-2023
Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPNcricinfo.com
stats.espncricinfo.com
Really just leaves Smith and Kane in a class of their own.
Why do this
16 as the India and England series are both 3 tests. After that NZ basically don’t play tests for 18 months. I think we have just 2 at home v WI in 2025/26. On the bright side, the poms admiration of us as the vanquished but noble foes of 2019 has seen us granted another 3 test tour of England in 2026. Maybe Kane could forge on until them but at 36 he’d be pushing it.
Have now convinced myself he's going to make it.
You did see the first 2 days yea?
Still in awe of Martin Crowe who named the Fab Four and predicted that they are all going to do awesome things. And they occupy 4 out of the top 5 places in that link with the other one being Warner, who is also an under-rated great imo.
Wondering what might have happened had the follow on not been enforced. England score 350 and NZ attempt to grind out 5 sessions for a draw. I think they might have had a chance too on this pitch. The one thing the follow on did was encouraging NZ to go for runs late on and thus throw away some wickets.
It was such a wild shot I almost wondered if Southee said to just have a go as they wanted a bowl tonight regardless.
Or maybe we'd have been bowled out for 220 and the game would already be over.
Can imagine a scenario in which England go extreme bazball and get bowled our for 250 or something leaving NZ with a target they might actually have got.
There’s a real risk that they might’ve set a gettable target if they’d batted for 50 overs and set 500. But then I suppose their bowlers would’ve been a lot more fresh in the second innings so NZ’s top order might never have laid the excellent foundation they did on day 3.
I mean I saw a guy score a run a ball 180 and another hit 150 no. The new ball provided 3 wickets but there wasn't much else on offer. I'm really not sure what NZ were up to in their first innings, that's where the questions should be from this Test. We've now seen a spinner toil away for 60 overs to grab a fivefer of which the last 3 came in his last 2 overs.
THIS
One more thing I've noticed in this link is,Over the last 10 years Kane has averaged a fraction under 60 with the bat. 2013-2023
Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPNcricinfo.com
Really just leaves Smith and Kane in a class of their own.
England racked up runs for fun on day 1 because NZ only picked 2 bowlers. The plan was to hope that Daryl Mitchell would suddenly metamorphosis into Colin de Grandhomme and that Neil Wagner would Benjamin Button himself into his 2019 incarnation, neither of which eventuated sadly. If NZ pick a decent 3rd seamer, England probably still score runs but I doubt they run away like they did. The drop off in pressure once Mitchell came on to bowl was shocking.
