*Official* New Zealand tour of India 2024

[Flem274*]

Santa's average has plummeted to a fairly whelming 36.

 

[Bahnz]

[

Santa's average has plummeted to a fairly whelming 36.

Might come down a bit further if the red clay at Mumbai lives up to its fearsome reputation.

 

[Bahnz]

With the series done, I wonder if India will rest Bumrah for the third test. They'll need him fit in all 5 tests to stand a chance in Australia. Though having said that, it's not like he was subject to a tremendous workload in this one.

 

[Athlai]

Santa takes 20 next

 

[Bahnz]

Also while he only got 1/60, I couldn't help but be immensely impressed with Phillips' bowling. On another day he grabs 4 or 5 bowling like that.

 

[Bahnz]

Time for Kohli to retire. Great player, but he's been averaging 30 since 2020. As an NZ fan there's just ni fear there when he walks out to bat. India need more from their number 4. They need to find someone who can actually bat time to take his place, and not just another IPL wiz kid who looks a million bucks when the pitch is flat but can't survive when there's movement through the air or off the surface.

 

[Flem274*]

Henry should come in for Ajaz. In these conditions Phillips is more trustworthy than either of Ajaz or Sodhi.

Ajaz has been a fantastic servant and bowled us to some great wins but Father Time appears to have called.

 

[NZTailender]

Part of me wants some new guys to get experience in the dead rubber, but I also want to grind India into the dust and a clean sweep would be preferable imo. Especially if there's a slimmer of an outside chance of us making the WTC final.

I'd be wary to play Henry if he's not 100% but I think he deserves as much game time as possible as our best seamer and after being left out in Sri Lanka.

 

[Bahnz]

Depending on player fitness I'd like to see:

Latham, Conway, KW, Rachin, Young, Phillips, Blundell, Santner, Henry, Ajaz, O'Rourke

If Henry's not fit I'd give Duffy a run ahead of Southee. If the surface is gonna have bounce would be good to have two lanky ***** taking the new ball.

Wouldn't write Ajaz off quite yet. Thought he bowled quite nicely after lunch yesterday without luck, and he did take a bag in Sri Lanka a few weeks back. And it was the kinda surface were the taller bowlers had an advantage by throwing the ball up and trying to break the surface.

 

[hendrix]

Depending on player fitness I'd like to see:

Latham, Conway, KW, Rachin, Young, Phillips, Blundell, Santner, Henry, Ajaz, O'Rourke

If Henry's not fit I'd give Duffy a run ahead of Southee. If the surface is gonna have bounce would be good to have two lanky ***** taking the new ball.

Wouldn't write Ajaz off quite yet. Thought he bowled quite nicely after lunch yesterday without luck, and he did take a bag in Sri Lanka a few weeks back. And it was the kinda surface were the taller bowlers had an advantage by throwing the ball up and trying to break the surface.

Yeah this is what I noticed too re: the taller bowlers.

Was also why i was surprised to not see rachin used a bit more.

Think ajaz could be ok in mumbai.

 

[SteveNZ]

KW plays if fit. Young is a good player but he hasn't crushed his way into the team and certainly not ahead of one of the big dogs of this generation.

Course he does. I'd love him to play, score runs, and give a finger to the disrespectful 'oh there goes Kane ducking another series' rubbish

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

What's the pitch supposed to be like for the third test? Any more injury forced changes in waiting? Santner's side strain leading to a selection for Chapman to be the extra extra spin bowling all-rounder?

 

[Smudge]

I'd like to drop Southee and O'Rourke and bring in Chapman and Macewell. D Mitchell to open the bowling with whichever spinner feels like bowling with a new cherry.

 

[Bahnz]

What's the pitch supposed be like for the third test? Any more injury forced changes in waiting? Santner's side strain leading to a selection for Chapman to be the extra extra spin bowling all-rounder?

It's a 'red clay' surface, which usually means more bounce and faster turn (2nd test of the 2021 tour was a red clay I think - https://www.espncricinfo.com/series...s-new-zealand-2nd-test-1278675/full-scorecard)

 

[Nintendo]

So, based on recent results
Australia>SL>NZ>IND>BANG>PAK>ENG

 

[Days of Grace]

Course he does. I'd love him to play, score runs, and give a finger to the disrespectful 'oh there goes Kane ducking another series' rubbish

“Nah, nah, nah, it was a dead rubber, etc.”

I’m torn between giving Ajaz another chance in what will likely be his final test, or giving Sodhi a go.”

Latham
Conway
Williamson
Ravindra
Mitchell
Phillips (sick of him being stranded with the tail)
Blundell
Santner
Sodhi
Henry
O’Rourke

 

[ataraxia]

So, based on recent results
RSA>WI=AUS>SL>NZ>IND>BANG>PAK>ENG

ftfy

 

[Jezroy]

I know people won’t like this… but I wonder if we could go

Conway
Young
Kane
Rachin
Mitchell
Philips
Latham (capn and keep)
Santner (still cant believe this will be a sustainable thing… but you keep him for the next game fo sho)
Henry
Southee/Patel (depending on conditions)
O’Rourke

Latham down the order in ODIs always seemed solid enough. And that way you keep Young in the team.

 

[straw man]

I'm still kinda just stunned that we won this series. I would have given us barely 1 in 1000 odds two weeks ago.

Firstly, the NZ team should celebrate long and hard and feel enormously satisfied at what they've achieved. This is something historic.

A one-off T20 win against an (expected-to-be) much better side would be one thing, but to win two test matches against overwhelming odds in foreign conditions like this is almost enough to make you want to throw out every single thing you thought you knew about the game. At first it's almost incomprehensible and is yet another sign of the impending apocalypse. The tooth fairy exists.

But, have to put together a collection of thoughts that would've still made sense pre-series, and try to understand it somehow:
- On rare occasions, Indian conditions are helpful to swing bowling.
- Indian pitches occasionally have bounce for the seamers, too.
- O'Rourke can surprise people.
- In theory, the core of the Indian batting is in decline, though there's an enormous weight of runs behind Rohit & Kohli and they're playing at home.
- Conway is a good player underneath his poor form of the last 18 months.
- Rachin could be a top-tier test batsman.
- Perhaps there's some weakness in the attacking nature of India's younger batters. Though damn those batting averages are high.
- In theory, Southee can bat well... once every fifty knocks.
- Ashwin and Jadeja are getting old, though they've obliterated our batting every other tour and still have a hundred tricks up their sleeves.
- Historically Latham plays spin well, though not really for the last three years.
- In theory, we could call the toss of a coin correctly 50% of the time.
- Santner's style of spin from height should make him a threat in some conditions - ahaha this was surely the longest bow of all given his career record. More than Ashwin and Jadeja, really???
- NZ's performance in the second test in Sri Lanka was awful and just off, but perhaps they can find some spark somewhere?

Somehow the scales fell NZ's way on all of these. That's not at all the same as saying we were lucky - we absolutely did play better on the field in both tests. The only real piece of luck was the pace-friendly conditions in the first test.

So there are reasons we won, even if it all just seems so improbable.
Or, put it down to the magic of test cricket and the magic of sport, if you prefer.

 

[jcas0167]

Stead is going to go down in history as NZ's best and most successful coach. In 100 years time NZ cricket fans will look back on the Stead era as NZ's greatest cricket era and lament the fact that NZ will never again be able to produce a coach as good as the late great Gary Stead.