*Official* World Test Championship Final 2021

[Arachnodouche]

^More worried about our batting tbh. Bowlers will go well, the Kiwis rarely get to play decent spin. But I can easily visualize our guys nicking off/getting trapped to Jamieson.

Boult seems off the boil every time I've seen him the last year or more. Swing isn't as late and speed's a little down too.

 

[hendrix]

wrong thread

 

[Noumenon]

Word on Twitter is Pant scored 121* off 94 and Gill the next best with 85 of 135 balls on day 1 of simulated match. Rest of them were middling scores.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

yeah not sure why the IND fans are so cautious about playing in the NZ v ENG thread

 

[Noumenon]

Will an Indian audience be able to understand him? I struggle sometimes tbh.

Accent wise he's fine, less dense than pundits from UK. But yes, his derridean ambiguity in speech and analysis might be hard to parse for Indian fans.

 

[Noumenon]

Ishant took 3/36, effectively ending all noises about his place in the XI. So it's between Siraj and Shami.

 

[Flem274*]

Tom Latham
Devon Conway
Kane Williamson
Ross Taylor
Henry Nicholls
BJ Watling
Colin de Grandhomme/Will Young (pitch dependent, adjust batting positions accordingly)
Kyle Jamieson
Tim Southee
Neil Wagner
Ajaz Patel

This is the team. This is not the team NZ will select, but it is the right team. Harsh on Boult, but he looks very short of a gallop. Harsh on Henry, but 3 specialist right arm outswing bowlers is silly. This side has variety and the only selection decision remaining depends on the pitch. If it's flat, go with the extra bowling of the allrounder. If she's green, stack the batting.

 

[hendrix]

Tom Latham
Devon Conway
Kane Williamson
Ross Taylor
Henry Nicholls
BJ Watling
Colin de Grandhomme/Will Young (pitch dependent, adjust batting positions accordingly)
Kyle Jamieson
Tim Southee
Neil Wagner
Ajaz Patel

This is the team. This is not the team NZ will select, but it is the right team. Harsh on Boult, but he looks very short of a gallop. Harsh on Henry, but 3 specialist right arm outswing bowlers is silly. This side has variety and the only selection decision remaining depends on the pitch. If it's flat, go with the extra bowling of the allrounder. If she's green, stack the batting.

Hard to disagree with you re: the bowlers but I do think Mitchell is preferable to CdG at this point. I know CdG can sometimes be a better bowler but I also think he's short of a gallop and Mitchell is quite clearly a better batsman and probably fielder too

 

[Flem274*]

i like mitchell but they're pretty equal as batsmen imo unless you specifically need someone to grind it out, and cdg is still way ahead in bowling based on the past two tests.

 

[Teja.]

I think Ishant should definitely play. Bumrah was at his best when Ishant was leading the attack as an economical workhorse and Bumrah had the freedom to bowl more aggressively around Ishant which led to some hax matchwinning spells by Bumrah. I felt there was a distinct drop off when Bumrah had to take on the responsibility of being the workhorse due to Ishant being injured.

Bumrah's career is only 19 matches long so the sample size is not quite conclusive but Bumrah's figures in matches with/without Ishant are interesting:

Bumrah without Ishant - 21 wickets in 6 tests @ 28.57
Bumrah with Ishant - 62 wickets in 13 tests @ 19.91

 

[ankitj]

Seeing how NZ is going, it's not gambhiring to be pessimistic. They are all over England.

 

[hendrix]

i like mitchell but they're pretty equal as batsmen imo unless you specifically need someone to grind it out, and cdg is still way ahead in bowling based on the past two tests.

Hmmmm I find it hard to imagine CdG scoring runs against good bowlers like Bumrah, Siraj and Ishant whereas I can imagine Mitchell scrapping it out a bit.

I also thought he was tidy enough with the ball

 

[Arachnodouche]

Seeing how NZ is going, it's not gambhiring to be pessimistic. They are all over England.

English batting is green **** atm. Not saying we aren't equally capable of ****ing things up but at least we go in with some proven pedigree.

 

[hendrix]

yeah this is an all time terrible English batting lineup. I'm legitimately more scared of their tailenders than their top order

 

[ankitj]

English batting is green **** atm. Not saying we aren't equally capable of ****ing things up but at least we go in with some proven pedigree.

We are capable of 36/9 (not all out you *****)

Play Pant, Sundar, Shardul, Axar type players and shock NZ.

 

[Flem274*]

setting myself up here but please play shardul. hawke cup bowler.

drop bumrah, shami, ishant, yadav, siraj, jadeja and ashwin.

 

[ankitj]

setting myself up here but please play shardul. hawke cup bowler.

drop bumrah, shami, ishant, yadav, siraj, jadeja and ashwin.

So basically Gabba XI?

Edit: minus Siraj

 

[andruid]

yeah this is an all time terrible English batting lineup. I'm legitimately more scared of their tailenders than their top order

Worse than the lot that lost the 2001? (May have been 2002-3) Ashes down under in less than 10 days of actual cricket?

 

[Zinzan]

Or do NZ sacrifice there batting and go with

Tom Latham
Devon Conway
Kane Williamson
Ross Taylor
Henry Nicholls
BJ Watling
Colin de Grandhomme/Will Young (pitch dependent, adjust batting positions accordingly)
Kyle Jamieson
Tim Southee
Neil Wagner
Ajaz Patel

This is the team. This is not the team NZ will select, but it is the right team. Harsh on Boult, but he looks very short of a gallop. Harsh on Henry, but 3 specialist right arm outswing bowlers is silly. This side has variety and the only selection decision remaining depends on the pitch. If it's flat, go with the extra bowling of the allrounder. If she's green, stack the batting.

Or do NZ take the risk of sacrificing their batting to go with?

Latham
Conway
KW
Taylor
Nicholls
Watling/Blundell
Jamieson
Southee
Wagner
Henry
Patel

I could see Henry troubling Rohit again as he did in the WC.

Genuine selection headaches

 

[James]

I don't like the thought of Ajaz Patel over one of our seamers, but I'd prefer him over Santner if the selectors are going to go down that route.

I'd rather see us stack the batting a bit more and get spin out of KW:

Latham
Conway
KW
Taylor
Young
Nicholls
Watling
Jamieson
Southee
Wagner
Boult