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

[Shri]

I hate how everyone seems to think he did reasonably in SA. The **** averaged something like 65.

Its called a Sharma scale. Reasonable is the highest measurement in it.

 

[James]

In the West Indies and the UAE, New Zealand will need a spinner. It's just too hot and humid for the quicks to bowl prolonged spells and maintain effectiveness without going massively over the allowed over-rate. For better or worse, Sodhi is the guy that New Zealand are backing to come good in international, and his Plunket Shield numbers have shown a little bit of progress this season. He's a project, and so shouldn't be binned as of yet, even though I personally would be picking Jeets ahead of him.

The thing is though, as has been shown with Sodhi, he releases all the pressure the quicks have built up with their opening spells with at least one loose ball an over being given away. He's too much of a loose cannon IMO, especially to play him against Pakistan in the UAE. At least when we played Bruce Martin he was able to keep it tight which Sodhi also fails to do.

I don't understand why bowlers like Sodhi get away with being called a "project", and are therefore seemingly allowed to have poor performance after poor performance but not be dumped and sent back to first-class cricket to get it right.

If say we play the same team as we played at the Basin that's 5 quicks + Williamson. Would be enough to see through 90 overs in a day I would have thought.

 

[Bahnz]

I suppose the argument is that New Zealand is a poor environment for young spinners to look to develop their skills. Pitches with little or no turn, poor coaching, lack of understanding of how to set fields for spinners, etc. As a result, succesful age-group spinners take years to even break into domestic cricket and then never become any better than substandard. Even Daniel Vettori, New Zealand's greatest ever spin bowler, was averaging nearly 35 after 4 games this season.

I do reckon that Sodhi was picked two years too soon. But the Bangladesh and England tours would suggest that you're wrong in your argument that Bruce Martin could do a better job of keeping things tight.

 

[hendrix]

yeah Bartin was horrible in every series but his first, where England inexplicably dead-batted his full tosses and long hops.

Sodhi will likely be just as effective if not more effective than Corey Anderson's bowling in Windies conditions, and honestly, one expensive wicket an innings is all we're likely to need from him.

 

[Mike5181]

Player rankings update:

Bowling:
Boult: 8th
Southee: 9th
Wagner: 28th

Batting:
Taylor: 5th
McCullum: 12th
Williamson: 21st
Watling: 45th
Neesham: 59th

 

[hendrix]

I was kinda disappointed with Boult this series.

 

[Arachnodouche]

Dhoni is falling over himself trying to cover his ass. I wouldn't have thought he'd be one to crave the captaincy so much, looks like he's buying wholesale into that Star Sports Believe bull****.

 

[Slifer]

Ne predictions for the WI series:

I'm predicting 1-1 or 2-1 to either team. Knowing the WI selectors as I do, however, they're probably gonna choose wastes of space like Darren Sammy and Tino Best to ensure we lose 2-0 again (or even 3-0 if they're being creative and bring back the likes of Devon Smith).

 

[Bahnz]

Wouldn't be shocked to see Best cling on to the 3rd seamer's spot. He's not terrible in that role, though he was horribly miscast as a new ball bowler.

1-1

 

[Bahnz]

I was kinda disappointed with Boult this series.

Yeah he was pretty erratic after an excellent series vs WI. Maybe still suffering from a lack of match practice due to that niggle that kept him out of the ND side last month?

 

[hendrix]

On their day, they have some pretty accomplished batsmen (Chanderpaul, Bravo, Samuels), but Samuels in particular has been horribly out of form and it's difficult to see him getting it back based on what we saw in NZ.

They'll probably produce rank turners and I could see them winning a test based on that. They'll also still be ripe for a batting collapse, so yeah I'm going to say 1-1.

 

[Slifer]

Wouldn't be shocked to see Best cling on to the 3rd seamer's spot. He's not terrible in that role, though he was horribly miscast as a new ball bowler.

1-1

Sorry but Tino Best should be no where near a WI starting Xl. The core of the WI bowling should be: Narine, Roach, Holder, Rampaul (lose some weight), Beaton, Cummings. I know some of those names don't ring a bell but trust me they're the future not freaking Tino Best of as we call him The "Worst"

 

[Daemon]

Yasir Shah and Samit Patel added.

Yasir is a very useful domestic pakistani spinner, while Samit is the big, fat, unlovable jerk who dicks from the sidelines about not getting a game :ninja:

Provisional line-up with stats from 2010/2011:

		Batting		Bowling

1. Vijay	39.17	
2. Fulton	37.95
3. Trott	43.48
4. Du Plessis	73.95		36.22
5. McCullum	31.18
6. P. Patel +	60.19
7. Hall		41.46		30.46
8. Philander	20.48		20.95
9. Thomas	18.55		24.60
10. Shah	19.40		21.33
11. Birch	18.70		24.82

12. S.Patel	38.33		40.06

Dat tail (or lack of it) though...

Insanely long tail


Cos it starts from 5 lulz

So I posted that on another forum.

ATG Jinx II.

Sorry India, I let you down

 

[Furball]

I'm impressed by Southee and Boult's numbers seeing as my impression of NZ pitches is that they're rubbish.

 

[Agent Nationaux]

NZ has a good chance in the UAE to beat Pak. There is always something there for the quicks and with Pak's fragile batting, not too difficult to win. Only problem for NZ will be to get a decent spinner and get better openers.

 

[SteveNZ]

NZ has a good chance in the UAE to beat Pak. There is always something there for the quicks and with Pak's fragile batting, not too difficult to win. Only problem for NZ will be to get a decent spinner and get better openers.

Those are significant problems, chief. The last time we had either of those things were in the early 2000s, when Vettori was a world-class Test spinner and Mark Richardson showed enough hard work and application to being an opener could be done.

Will the Windies get Shillingford's services, or is that unlikely? If they ragged their pitches up and played Narine/Shillingford, it could get ugly.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Read in the paper today that McCullum has a new sprog due during May - isn't that when the WI series is on? Seems to be the season for such things.

 

[Slifer]

Those are significant problems, chief. The last time we had either of those things were in the early 2000s, when Vettori was a world-class Test spinner and Mark Richardson showed enough hard work and application to being an opener could be done.

Will the Windies get Shillingford's services, or is that unlikely? If they ragged their pitches up and played Narine/Shillingford, it could get ugly.

Assuming Narine is fit and willing to play tests, and assuming that results pan out, then I think Shillingford's days would be numbered.

 

[hendrix]

Shillingford's been banned twice. I really don't think it's worth the investment.

 

[Bahnz]

Read in the paper today that McCullum has a new sprog due during May - isn't that when the WI series is on? Seems to be the season for such things.

It's scheduled for May/June, but given that the WI players have a history of abandoning ship for the IPL, I imagine the WICB will push back the start of the tour until end of May at the earliest.