thierry henry
International Coach
Hope O'Rourke goes well on the very vague basis that he seems tallish, quickish and youngish
Dougeh.Who opens with Cooper? Solia?
Mitch Hay (unless he has somehow jumped past Chu in the young keeper standings and is Fletcher's back up).Who opens with Cooper? Solia?
I think they see 29 11/12 as a youngster.Our selectors are just dumb. That 'A' team is too old across the board.
If you have so many 30 year old fillers in your A Team, the one consolation of that make-up is it gives you the 'solidity' to be able to also insert a 'too green' gamble or two, with the experience around them - so it's not a 'team of kids' who crumble.
View attachment 35179
With that sort of age, and therefore assumed solidity in the middle order .... you can insert Abbas at 6 instead of Solia.
With that much age, you can say sorry to Cam Fletcher, still in our plans as next cab-off-the-rank, but age structure of this particular squad means we want to give the 6 year younger Max Chu a taste of some tougher cricket.
Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb,
Well, he's exactly 50th percentile for this squad.I think they see 29 11/12 as a youngster.
Also Ajaz is obviously still in contention for the Bangladesh tour, but I would've preferred Pringle. He played in the World T20 and didn't look fazed at all.Yeah I don't hate that they've picked lots of experienced players but it did absolutely mean that they could've included Abbas to accelerate his development - like they did with Rachin. Players like Bruce, Cooper and McConchie might be in line for immediate call-ups if there are injuries so that's fair enough, but Solia is so meh.
Abbas has played 3 domestic games. I'm fine with waiting a little longer to see if he's the real deal or whether he's just enjoying a great start that will revert to a lower mean. I do agree that Max Chu can feel a bit grumpy though, he's been the form keeper bat this season. Having said that, Fletcher has a longer track record of success, and it's hard to keep a player as "next cab-off-the-rank" if you're not going to trial them against a serious A opponent. A games aren't purely about development, they're also about testing your current assumptions about squad depth.Our selectors are just dumb. That 'A' team is too old across the board.
If you have so many 30 year old fillers in your A Team, the one consolation of that make-up is it gives you the 'solidity' to be able to also insert a 'too green' gamble or two, with the experience around them - so it's not a 'team of kids' who crumble.
View attachment 35179
With that sort of age, and therefore assumed solidity in the middle order .... you can insert Abbas at 6 instead of Solia.
With that much age, you can say sorry to Cam Fletcher, still in our plans as next cab-off-the-rank, but age structure of this particular squad means we want to give the 6 year younger Max Chu a taste of some tougher cricket.
Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb,
Nah, it's not just about age.Abbas has played 3 domestic games. I'm fine with waiting a little longer to see if he's the real deal or whether he's just enjoying a great start that will revert to a lower mean. I do agree that Max Chu can feel a bit grumpy though, he's been the form keeper bat this season. Having said that, Fletcher has a longer track record of success, and it's hard to keep a player as "next cab-off-the-rank" if you're not going to trial them against a serious A opponent. A games aren't purely about development, they're also about testing your current assumptions about squad depth.
Overall I think the A side has a decent mix of youth and experience, the only reason Rachin isn't playing is because he's got a call-up to the ODI side, and it's hard to say that guys like McConchie and Bruce have a lot of youthful competition. The youth bowling stocks are also looking seriously depleted this season with Sears, Fisher and Smith all injured, giving Ashok and O'Rourke a run is a positive forward step.
Rachin made his FC debut for New Zealand A.Abbas has played 3 domestic games.
Forget averages - His List A batting s/r is 94 and bowling e/r is 5.1 (and he's bowled in 23 out of 26 matches so is hardly a part-timer). Apart from a slightly lower s/r his List A batting numbers are as good as Finn Allen's, plus Ravindra can give 5-10 decent overs per game.Why are we playing Ravindra in ODIs when the dude averages 31 with the bat and 60 with the ball in List A.
Yeah, and I thought that was more than a bit weird.Rachin made his FC debut for New Zealand A.
Might be in the T20 squad to play SLWhy was Ravindra not picked to play the second one of these, starting on the 8th. Was he a county signing?