Speaking of which, I'm going out on a limb and am prepared to say we won't win a single test this summer. Yes, I think even the West Indies now have enough in the tank to best us. The batting is simply too indisciplined to have a hope of consistently putting up the 300+ totals needed to win test matches. The performance of our
The performance of our...?
Anyway, I will agree with you here. Before the Bangladesh series I would've said we'd overcome the WIndies with little or no problems, given the reasonable showing our inexperienced side did against England.
However now the technical deficiencies of our batsmen have become more and more apparent, as our top order looks shakier than ever without the Flemeister at 3/4.
I think, on paper, we'd have the better bowling attack due mainly to experience.
We've got the better spinners, no question. However the pace attacks are interesting ones.
On our side we have somewhat more accurate, line and length bowlers like Mills, Martin, O'Brien and Mason. The WIndies have Sammy in this respect, with Bravo have a foot in both camps, the second camp being one of pace.
The WIndies definitely have the faster bowlers, who you would describe as erratic strike bowlers, who can be dangerous but just as equally wayward and easy to score off. Given our seam friendly pitches and weather, we could see some interesting seam and swing bowling on display this summer from both sides.
On our side, we have Mark Gillespie in this discipline. Capable of cranking the speed up, take wickets but can also be woeful. We have an exciting prospect who can, like Bravo, claim to have a foot in both accurate and express camps - Tim Southee. Regardless of how our seamers go in Australia I think it's vital, not only for our sides chances, that Southee play vs. the Windies to continue to develop and hone his skills. No offence intended to the WIndians but we should be aiming to get our guys fit and in match form in time for the biggest test of our home games - India.
That's not to say they won't be tested against the WIndies. The bowlers will be up against two guys who I rank better than anyone in our team in the form of Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan. Throw in Dwayne Bravo and we have a middle order that will be tough to get past. Apart from those three and Gayle, the WIndies batting is just as inexperienced as our guys, so it'll be interesting to see who steps up and performs for them in terms of their batting rookies (Marshall, Nash, Johnson and Chattergoon).
In other news, Oram's out of the tour to Australia. I don't honestly see the point of picking someone like Grant Elliot for the series. We should just go for a specialist batsman, maybe Peter Fulton at number 3, to bolster our paper thin batting. Jesse Ryder will do no worse as a part-time seamer.
I tend to agree with this. I think we should pick a specialist batsman to replace Oram as opposed to Elliott. We have more than enough 'handy' batsmen in Mills and Vettori down the order, and given our shaky, young top order Fulton would IMO be perfect to bring in and bat at 3, with Ryder dropping to five.
I continue to be undecided about Flynn. At this stage he doesn't deserve to be dropped, I guess (average of 38), so if he can continue to not only grind out runs, but show us some of his stroke making ability that people say he has, then I'll definitely be pleased. And Ryder can indeed fill in the part time seamer role.