hendrix
Hall of Fame Member
I normally agree with Bahnz on these things but I strongly disagree here.
If we take the example of pre-good England, there's just as much if not plenty more talent in this NZ player pool. Southee is at least as good as Anderson was before he became the most consistent bowler in the world.
And that's bull**** about the conditions; whether our conditions or coaching are good or not, we've still produced Southee and Boult who are clearly not the classical NZ medium pace seam bowlers. . Already we are in the top 3 new ball attacks in the world - that hasn't happened for over 10 years. There are no Daryl Tuffeys and Brent Arnels even in contention for selection in the test side. Wagner is perhaps not of genuine class, but you could probably have said the same about Tim Bresnan and even Pete Siddle a while ago. Moreover, the guys behind him in the pecking order are massively talented - and this is coming from someone who doesn't even rate Bracewell. Milne has far more potential than plenty of other bowlers that are already being tried out in test teams around the world.
Yes, we lack the real class batsmen like Pujara and Kohli, and lack the opening batsmen that have made South Africa and England strong, but it will still be a massive underachievement if the NZ test side isn't significantly stronger in 2 years time. Two good batsmen in Taylor and Williamson plus a tail that is far stronger than it has been in recent times has proven enough to win a game in SL and really push England hard.
It is fair to say that our openers will always be a weak point and thus make us still prone to the 100 all out scores, but that too has also happened to England in the UAE and Australia in South Africa. We should at least be confident that we will be beating those mid table sides as often as we lose to them.
Facing teams like SL and India in our back yard are series that we should be consistently winning as well.
If we take the example of pre-good England, there's just as much if not plenty more talent in this NZ player pool. Southee is at least as good as Anderson was before he became the most consistent bowler in the world.
And that's bull**** about the conditions; whether our conditions or coaching are good or not, we've still produced Southee and Boult who are clearly not the classical NZ medium pace seam bowlers. . Already we are in the top 3 new ball attacks in the world - that hasn't happened for over 10 years. There are no Daryl Tuffeys and Brent Arnels even in contention for selection in the test side. Wagner is perhaps not of genuine class, but you could probably have said the same about Tim Bresnan and even Pete Siddle a while ago. Moreover, the guys behind him in the pecking order are massively talented - and this is coming from someone who doesn't even rate Bracewell. Milne has far more potential than plenty of other bowlers that are already being tried out in test teams around the world.
Yes, we lack the real class batsmen like Pujara and Kohli, and lack the opening batsmen that have made South Africa and England strong, but it will still be a massive underachievement if the NZ test side isn't significantly stronger in 2 years time. Two good batsmen in Taylor and Williamson plus a tail that is far stronger than it has been in recent times has proven enough to win a game in SL and really push England hard.
It is fair to say that our openers will always be a weak point and thus make us still prone to the 100 all out scores, but that too has also happened to England in the UAE and Australia in South Africa. We should at least be confident that we will be beating those mid table sides as often as we lose to them.
Facing teams like SL and India in our back yard are series that we should be consistently winning as well.
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