*Unofficial* New Zealand Black Caps Thread

[Fuller Pilch]

I'm going to be so gutted if we don't play Rachin or Phillips

My biggest worry (actually, fear) is that the only change to the eleven will be dropping Young and replacing him with...
























Scotty K!!!

 

[straw man]

Hard to pick the bowlers when we have no idea who will be fit. Henry might be about to break.

I kinda hope either Wagner retires immediately (unlikely) or Henry sits out the first test at least to rest his back. That would leave a bowling attack, if I was selector of:
Southee
Henry/Wagner
Shipley/Smith
Predator/Rooster

... which gives us one future core bowler and one WILDCARD.

 

[Flem274*]

A full strength NZ side (sans Boult who we know they won't pick again) should look something like:

Conway
Latham
Williamson
Young
Phillips
Mitchell
Blundell (wk)
Jamieson
Sodhi/Ajaz
Southee (c)
Ferguson/Sears

Harsh on Henry but we need to realistically assess what Wagner brought to the side (2 players in 1) and replace it rather than playing three right arm fast medium outswing bowlers.

That makes our direct second string:

Ravindra
Carter (A runs)
Foxcroft
Nicholls
Chapman
Bruce
Cleaver (wk)
Smith
Henry
Sodhi/Ajaz
Ferguson/Sears

No hate on Tickner but he's not quite at the level of the above bowlers. Wagner should probably retire on that high. He defended the honour of our great nation from the English scum one final time but he looks sooooo down from his peak.

I may have forgotten obvious choices. Oh well. Edit - Shipley and Duffy should be in the frame for the right arm fast medium spots but those are heavily contested. I think Smith is the clear leader of the uncapped contenders there.

 

[nzfan]

no, there is an NZ XI game before the first test.

Yeah but they're not going to pick anyone from the NZ XI game. That's just academic only.

 

[Bahnz]

Sears or Ferguson won’t replace Wagner. Ferguson would break into a million pieces if he tried to bowl a 10 over spell and looking at his fitness record over the past few seasons the same is probably true of Sears. To accomodate one of them in the XI NZ really needs 4 dedicated bowlers including a spinner, which means at least one of them has to be able to contribute with the bat. To me that points to Smith or Dracewell. NZ also needs an allrounder capable of taking wickets on a semi-regular basis. Not really any obvious contenders for that at this point save Rachin, but I wouldn’t want him to be given the burden of being our only spinner. Needs to make batting his main priority in the near term.

 

[Athlai]

Yeah it seems like we shouldn't expect any of the genuine quicks to play test cricket now. And TBF when they can make a million dollars by being fit for 2 months for the IPL every year, risking that would be career suicide.

 

[nzfan]

Sears is not even playing for Firebirds right now so don't expect him to be picked. By the time he gets through bowling loads in training to become test ready it will be at least 2 months. So park that right there. In any case this management has decided he is white ball only bowler in specific t20 format only. It's a shame but that's what it is.

It will be the exact same squad we had for England with Macewell the only one going out for Ish Sodhi. Sri Lanka only have couple of left hand batters and Ish has scored some runs recently in domestic cricket so they will pick him. Phillips picked because he can bowl is ruled out. They're not going to pick an offie vs SL side.

You will see Tickener and Kuggs picked, it's quite obvious. They will reckon having these guys and bouncing the SL batsmen is the way to go.

 

[The Hutt Rec]

Hard to pick the bowlers when we have no idea who will be fit. Henry might be about to break.

Heard Henry on SENZ this morning and he said it was just a muscle spasm, he’ll be fine in a day or two.

 

[Flem274*]

I wouldn't ask the quicks to bowl a 10 over spell, that's why I'd replace Wagner with 2 players (a proper spinner and a quick bowler).

I expect us to pick (good) quick bowlers because you can't piddle about with 3-4 right arm fast medium outswing bowlers and expect to consistently take 20 wickets. Plus, they're our damn bowlers and at least Ferguson is contracted. If they want to betray the NZ development pathways and financial investment to go play giggle tournaments overseas, we can send them a bill.

We also can't declare picking someone who isn't a 135kph right arm outswing bowler a waste of time when we've barely bothered trying. We're defeatist. Little New Zealand only knows one way. Did our legspinner just have a good series? Better drop him for some bloke who barely makes the Wellington FC side.

 

[Howsie]

Am I the only one that just doesn’t see a test opener in Rachin? Admittedly I haven’t seen a lot of him but he just looks far to loose to succeed there.

Now if he was batting at four or five that’s a whole different story but…

 

[Zinzan]

Am I the only one that just doesn’t see a test opener in Rachin?

Agree, still seems a bit wet around the ears for me, and would rather they start him at 5-6 if they are going to give him a Test run.

 

[nzfan]

Am I the only one that just doesn’t see a test opener in Rachin? Admittedly I haven’t seen a lot of him but he just looks far to loose to succeed there.

Now if he was batting at four or five that’s a whole different story but…

I'd think most of his runs have come opening the batting on tough decks. I think he may have done well in the middle order as well for NZ A. Can't be sure.

If he's bowling it's got to be in the middle order. I can't see how he can bat at the top of the order and bowl fair number of overs. If he does then either his batting or bowling, one department he will get a lot less out of himself in my opinion.

 

[Immenso]

Yeah but they're not going to pick anyone from the NZ XI game. That's just academic only.

wasn't my point. My point is you are mistakenly thinking the test is starting when it is the warm up game starting at that day.

 

[Mike5181]

I'll be pissed off if they don't pick two of Ravindra, Smith, Phillips, Shipley in that first test XI. They need to blood younger players now. Nicholls and Bracewell should be out so it's the perfect opportunity.

 

[nzfan]

wasn't my point. My point is you are mistakenly thinking the test is starting when it is the warm up game starting at that day.

No I meant the day of squad announcement for SL series

 

[nzfan]

Here's our latest round of surviving batsmen in first-class cricket. Take a pick whom you want to pick as openers and middle order for the future from the list. The current bunch most of them will disappear within 3-4 years. How many batsmen from this list make 100% cut in the test team in future in your opinion?


Openers:

Cooper
Raval
Luke Georgeson
R Ravindra
Rutherford
Parkes
Bowes
Mariu
Heapy
Schmulian
W O'Donnell
S Solia

Middle order:

Carter
Bopli
Seifert
KD Clarke

T Johnson
N Kelly
F Allen
Bracewell

Foxcroft
G Phillips
D Phillips

McConchie
L Carter
Z Foulkes
M Hay

Cleaver
T Bruce
J Clarkson

Briggs
R O'Donnell
G Worker

 

[straw man]

Am I the only one that just doesn’t see a test opener in Rachin? Admittedly I haven’t seen a lot of him but he just looks far to loose to succeed there.

Now if he was batting at four or five that’s a whole different story but…

He does drive and play the ball outside off with a very open blade, which is not usually what an opener would want to do against the laterally moving ball in NZ.

However I would prefer he learned to be a lot more selective with those shots as opener, rather than move to the middle order.

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

What happened to that Leopard guy, also the Zoltan.

 

[straw man]

What happened to that Leopard guy

took career best figures in Pakistan iirc

 

[The Hutt Rec]

Stead: lol at anyone who thought there would be any change to the side whatsoever:

Stead said he was optimistic opening bat Devon Conway and pace bowler Matt Henry will be fit for the first test against Sri Lanka at Hagley Oval in Christchurch starting on March 9.

Conway didn’t field on the fifth day with an abductor strain while Henry went off before lunch with a lower back problem but returned to bowl after the break.

That means New Zealand will keep the same squad of 13 they had at the Basin Reserve for the tests versus Sri Lanka in Christchurch and Wellington.

“There's always people knocking on the door, and you always have those conversations, but we felt the 13 that we had here is the right 13 to go forward,” Stead said.

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