***Official*** India in New Zealand 2013/14

[Blocky]

Harris - Injury prone and probably in his last year
Johnson - One exceptional series against England doesn't prove to me that he's not the same flake he was after one exceptional series against South Africa
Siddle - Good steady bowler, but not a world beater like Boult potentially is

Anderson - Past his better days, looked clueless in the Ashes
Broad - Granted, probably the best bowler not playing for South Africa at the moment
Stokes - Dependable but hardly someone I'd put in the class of Southee or Boult

Junaid Khan - lol
Mohd Irfan - lol
Umar Gul - lol

 

[Zinzan]

Harris - Injury prone and probably in his last year
Johnson - One exceptional series against England doesn't prove to me that he's not the same flake he was after one exceptional series against South Africa
Siddle - Good steady bowler, but not a world beater like Boult potentially is

Anderson - Past his better days, looked clueless in the Ashes
Broad - Granted, probably the best bowler not playing for South Africa at the moment
Stokes - Dependable but hardly someone I'd put in the class of Southee or Boult

Junaid Khan - lol
Mohd Irfan - lol
Umar Gul - lol

Wagner - lol times 1 million.

 

[Blocky]

Blocky, quit bringing us down by using 'Wagner' in an argument for our bowling attack. You'll have far more credibility if you just stick to the two openers Southee & Boult for now.

I'd take Wagner's bowling over Stokes, that's for sure.

 

[hendrix]

no, no, no, please don't.

 

[benchmark00]

lol. That'll do me.

 

[Zinzan]

I'd take Wagner's bowling over Stokes, that's for sure.

Sorry Blocky, but Martin Guptill is Don Bradman before you can put Wagner in the same class as Johnson, Harris, Siddle (or about 3-4 other Australian bowlers such as Pattinson, Cummins for that matter).

 

[Wright]

Because mostly, the wickets that our first class cricket is played on have no semblance or representation to recent wickets we've been producing at the first class level. So we have no real advantage playing at home versus playing away, because the pitches are as foreign to our batsmen as they are the international players. It's why you see people like Crowe, Smith and others complain about the ground staff in NZ and even go as far to indicate that they're acting on orders from NZC to produce pitches that suit the opposition.

Personally, our players should be capable against the swinging ball considering our conditions offer as much swing and bounce as England. I also think we should move to the Duke cricket ball seeing how much our bowlers loved it in England and also because it will make converting back to the Kooka or other balls around much easier for our batsmen when it doesn't swing and bounce so viciously for so long.

With regards to the pitches produced for this series, the BCCI will have the biggest influence on what pitches we produce. They don't want a repeat of 2002.

 

[Shri]

With regards to the pitches produced for this series, the BCCI will have the biggest influence on what pitches we produce. They don't want a repeat of 2002.

Ah ffs, forget India, when was the last time NZ produced genuine green tops like the 2002 ones? A gazillion years ago. So stfu with the conspiracy theories will you? You don't need **** like that to beat us anyway atm.

 

[Jono]

Lol I know. This 2002 issue comes up whenever India tour. So lame.

 

[Jono]

Speaking of 2002, India lost that test series because they didn't big the great man, Javagal Srinath, for the tests.

 

[Wright]

"Ah ffs, forget India, when was the last time NZ produced genuine green tops like the 2002 ones? A gazillion years ago. So stfu with the conspiracy theories will you? You don't need **** like that to beat us anyway atm. "

You are being massively naive if you don't think the BCCI dictates to other nations with regards to pitches, who they have in their cricketing boards etc. I never mentioned green tops, Id be happy with a pitch like the basin pitch against the West Indies, a green top is never going to happen NZC has 35 million reasons to suck up to the BCCI.

 

[hendrix]

The BCCI would prefer it if the series is competitive, I would imagine.

A loss to NZ would be perfectly tolerable.

 

[Agent Nationaux]

Last time Pak toured NZ, they served up flat pitches.

 

[Daemon]

"Ah ffs, forget India, when was the last time NZ produced genuine green tops like the 2002 ones? A gazillion years ago. So stfu with the conspiracy theories will you? You don't need **** like that to beat us anyway atm. "

You are being massively naive if you don't think the BCCI dictates to other nations with regards to pitches, who they have in their cricketing boards etc. I never mentioned green tops, Id be happy with a pitch like the basin pitch against the West Indies, a green top is never going to happen NZC has 35 million reasons to suck up to the BCCI.

 

[Blocky]

Sorry Blocky, but Martin Guptill is Don Bradman before you can put Wagner in the same class as Johnson, Harris, Siddle (or about 3-4 other Australian bowlers such as Pattinson, Cummins for that matter).

Boult and Southee are in the same class as those players, Siddle is a reliable dependable bowler but no world beater. Like I say, I'd stack our guys up against any attack in the world outside of South Africas. I still don't buy that Johnson is now a world beating all time great, because we've seen him have superb series before and lose it all the next time he played.

 

[Binkley]

Sorry Blocky, but Martin Guptill is Don Bradman before you can put Wagner in the same class as Johnson, Harris, Siddle (or about 3-4 other Australian bowlers such as Pattinson, Cummins for that matter).

Honestly. Can we not do this? Just agree to disagree and move on. These threads used to be so much more fun when they weren't dominated by repetitious and boring as hell obsessions with discussing Guptill, Sodhi and Wagner.

 

[Blocky]

Honestly. Can we not do this? Just agree to disagree and move on. These threads used to be so much more fun when they weren't dominated by repetitious and boring as hell obsessions with discussing Guptill, Sodhi and Wagner.

Highly sorry to be debating the three (four including McCullum) most contentious issues in the NZ cricket team during a thread about an NZ cricket tour.

 

[Bahnz]

Boult and Southee are in the same class as those players, Siddle is a reliable dependable bowler but no world beater. Like I say, I'd stack our guys up against any attack in the world outside of South Africas. I still don't buy that Johnson is now a world beating all time great, because we've seen him have superb series before and lose it all the next time he played.

Southee is not yet as good as Harris.
Wagner is not in the same galaxy as Siddle especially when it comes to the 3rd seamer role.
It's a bit early to say for certain, but I'm fairly confident that Anderson is not as good as Watson in the 4th seamer role.
I take your point about Johnson, but you equally have to recognise that Johnson's best is superior to anything that Boult is capable of. And given the all round strength of the Australian attack they can afford to carry an erratic player like Mitch.

 

[Blocky]

Southee is not yet as good as Harris.
Wagner is not in the same galaxy as Siddle especially when it comes to the 3rd seamer role.
It's a bit early to say for certain, but I'm fairly confident that Anderson is not as good as Watson in the 4th seamer role.
I take your point about Johnson, but you equally have to recognise that Johnson's best is superior to anything that Boult is capable of. And given the all round strength of the Australian attack they can afford to carry an erratic player like Mitch.

The problem with the Australian bowling attack is that we don't know how they'll respond to pressure. We'll be much better situated to assess them after their series in South Africa because to be quite frank, England were absolutely deplorable against Australia and showed no spine in almost any innings. Harris is definitely a world class performer but struggles through every series, England didn't make him stay out in the field for 120-150 overs in any of their innings - what happens when South Africa do this?

Watson also has injury issues that limit his bowling, on his day and non injured he's definitely superb, probably better than Siddle. Siddle, I like the guy, he's a lion hearted run in all day performer, but he's not a world beater. He is a great foil for Harris and Johnson when Johnson is all over the other side - but Johnson, we'll assess him once he's put together more than one series worth of performance. To be honest, bowling bumpers at 155kmh will always "rankle" the opposition but we've seen Johnson get flailed all over the park at that pace too.

 

[Kippax]

http://podcast.mediaworks.co.nz/RadioLive/LiveSPORT/February14/050214_MHesson.mp3

Cricket: Vettori on deadline - Sport - NZ Herald News

Hesson will consider Vettori for the 2015 World Cup on one condition: "It is dependent on his fitness. We don't want to rush him back so he won't be considered for the World T20 [in Bangladesh during March]."

Vettori's verdict was clear.

"The West Indies tour in May and June will be make or break for me," he said last night. "I want to commit to that tour otherwise it will be too hard to keep trying to come back. I've got to be in a realistic position where I'm ready to push [for a World Cup place] from there. I can't give anyone a guarantee but NZC will make that call."

Daniel Vettori eyes Cricket World Cup | Stuff.co.nz

Vettori got through seven Big Bash games on painkillers, taking seven wickets at a tidy average of 25 and economy rate of 6.25, but was barely able to walk at the end. He hasn't bowled a ball since and doesn't expect to for several weeks, thereby ruling him out of next month's World T20.

"It was a little bit worse than the past. Running around was difficult. I'll just rest up and try and get that ready. If I can then that's great and if I can't then the writing is probably on the wall.

"It's all about bowling and because I haven't done that for a couple of weeks it's hard to know. I don't want to just sit back in February with no cricket for a little while and just give it away. If I can work reasonably hard and try to push towards it [an international return] then who knows."

Vettori is off to the Indian Premier League auction next week, having become coach of Royal Challengers Bangalore. He will test out his back after that, and if fit could potentially return for Northern Districts in the domestic one-day competition later next month.