*Official* England in NZ 2023

[Fuller Pilch]

Huge congrats to England. Kane at 4 for the rest of his career. Hope we can pick Foxcroft soon and NZC needs to pay big money to fix Jamieson. Bat deep - 2 decent part time spinners in top 6.

5 changes for Wellington (no room for Young sadly):
Ravindra
Latham
Conway
Williamson
Phillips
Mitchell
Blundell (wk)
Smith
Shipley
Henry
Southee


Thanks for the memories Wags
Sodhi for Smith if conditions justify it.

 

[Ultra Instinct]

What changes can we really make?

Young in for Nicolls, Henry and maybe Jamieson (if he's available? Know he has a stress fracture not sure whether he is available) for Tickner and Kuggelijin.

Even so, we aren't going to compete with this English team.

 

[Zinzan]

Interesting to see NZ's stats in the last 12 months

Notably Southee has averaged over 50 & we clearly miss Lord Colin & Boult... the rest is underwhelming bar Mitchell and Blundell with the bat & Sodhi due to his good Pakistan series..

 

[Skyliner]

Southee: should be number 11 in any side he plays in. No ticker.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

This is a serious result for NZ cricket. Performances have obviously been on the decline for a while, but NZ hasn’t suffered this kind of a thumping on home soil since prior to McCullum taking over the captaincy in 2012. This needs to be a wake-up call.

Australia thumped us here in 2016 in McCullum's last series

 

[Ultra Instinct]

Huge congrats to England. Kane at 4 for the rest of his career. Hope we can pick Foxcroft soon and NZC needs to pay big money to fix Jamieson. Bat deep - 2 decent part time spinners in top 6.

5 changes for Wellington (no room for Young sadly):
Ravindra
Latham
Conway
Williamson
Phillips
Mitchell
Blundell (wk)
Smith
Shipley
Henry
Southee


Thanks for the memories Wags

Maybe keeping Kane away from the new ball may resurrect his Test career.

 

[Nintendo]

Why are people talking about gutting this entire NZ team lmao? You still have two of the best red ball openers in the world, one of the best #3's, a reliable #5/6 in Blundell+Mitchell, Bracewell has also been decent recently. There's alot to work with.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Why are people talking about gutting this entire NZ team lmao? You still have two of the best red ball openers in the world, one of the best #3's, a reliable #5/6 in Blundell+Mitchell, Bracewell has also been decent recently. There's alot to work with.

Too old. If you don't grow and reinvent you perish and die.

 

[Ultra Instinct]

Why are people talking about gutting this entire NZ team lmao? You still have two of the best red ball openers in the world, one of the best #3's, a reliable #5/6 in Blundell+Mitchell, Bracewell has also been decent recently. There's alot to work with.

Conway, Latham, Kane (at 4), Blundell, Mitchell and Bracewell work.

Rest we need to think about. Even with Bracewell if he's not scoring runs, idk if he's worth keeping around. Problem is we don't have many options and he provides a decent spin option.

Kane has been really disappointing, outside scoring runs against Pakistan on roads while having chances, he hasn't been scoring runs against good teams.

 

[Skyliner]

NZ had a collective spark about them when Baz was at the helm, and then we coasted a bit on the afterglow after he left the scene. Now we’ve reverted to type under a couple of blokes who are nice enough fellas but aren’t really ‘leaders of men’. Couple them with the staid and deeply conservative Stead, and the stench of mediocrity and failure has well and truly returned. But the good times were fun while they lasted.

 

[Meridio]

Yeah England were completely reckless with the bat, #Bazball and all that but they left a lot of runs out there. The most impressive thing about them has been the bowling, under lights in particular. They gave nothing away, pretty much every delivery threatening the top of off, and no easy release balls. Stark contrast with our bowlers under lights on day 2 where we bowled the occasional good ball but mixed it up with a lot of junk, and England were able to get through without too much damage.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Also got to think about a captain post Southee. It can't be Latham unless he scores against good pace attacks.

 

[Ultra Instinct]

Also got to think about a captain post Southee. It can't be Latham unless he scores against good pace attacks.

Glad someone said it lol. Latham is pretty unreliable against the top teams.

Mostly scores against Pakistan, SL, WI and Bangladesh.

 

[jcas0167]

Australia thumped us here in 2016 in McCullum's last series

We also lost by 198 runs against South Africa last year and by 8 wickets in 2017. This must be one of the worst batting efforts at home in a fair while though (mitigating factor is pink ball under lights is a fairly unique challenge).

I would like to see Phillips come in for Nicholls, they will probably go with Young who is in the squad and would also be an improvement.

 

[Zinzan]

Why are people talking about gutting this entire NZ team lmao? You still have two of the best red ball openers in the world, one of the best #3's, a reliable #5/6 in Blundell+Mitchell, Bracewell has also been decent recently. There's alot to work with.

I agree there's no point gutting a side without players good enough to replacement them but;

1) Southee has averaged over 50 in the last 12 months (7 tests)
2) Our selectors have made it clear they're not interested in selecting Boult for test matches moving fwd so the 'two of the best red ball openers' thing is a moot point.
3) I genuinely think Mitchell is a bit of a myth and that series last year was an anomaly (but we'll see, I could be wrong. Feels more like a 35 average middle order bat to me.)
4) KW has looked a shadow of his former self for 2-3 years now, and barring that 1 unbeaten double hundred, his recent numbers look horrible.

In Blundell we do have a genuinely world class keeper/batsman, I will say that.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

We also lost by 198 runs against South Africa last year and by 8 wickets in 2017. This must be one of the worst batting efforts at home in a fair while though (mitigating factor is pink ball under lights is a fairly unique challenge). I would like to see Phillips come in for Nicholls, they will probably go with Young who is in the squad and would also be an improvement.

2017 vs SA wasn't so bad as we dominated both the 1st and 3rd tests (especially the 3rd) but rain thwarted us.

 

[Ultra Instinct]

I agree there's no point gutting a side without players good enough to replacement them but;

1) Southee has averaged over 50 in the last 12 months (7 tests)
2) Our selectors have made it clear they're not interested in selecting Boult for test matches moving fwd so the 'two of the best red ball openers' thing is a moot point.
3) I genuinely think Mitchell is a bit of a myth and that series last year was an anomaly (but we'll see, I could be wrong. Feels more like a 35 average middle order bat to me.)
4) KW has looked a shadow of his former self for 2-3 years now, and barring that 1 unbeaten double hundred, his recent numbers look horrible.

In Blundell we do have a genuinely world class keeper/batsman, I will say that.

Fair point about Mitchell, okay with giving him a few more series to cement a spot after that England series.

Not many want to talk about the elephant in the room (Kane's form). If we lose one early, we can quickly become 2 against the top teams.

 

[Meridio]

I've never understood the KW to #4 rationale. What's the point? What do we (and him) gain from it? Just has the feel of making a change for the sake of making a change.

 

[Ultra Instinct]

I've never understood the KW to #4 rationale. What's the point? What do we (and him) gain from it? Just has the feel of making a change for the sake of making a change.

Because Kane isn't good enough to survive the new ball these days. Who knows maybe against the older ball he can survive and score some runs.

It's either that or dropping him (which isn't going to happen).

 

[Skyliner]

NZ vs Sri Lanka at Hagley Oval: be there to watch Latham gorge himself on his home deck and be lauded once again as ‘pure class and the best opener we’ve ever had’.