*Unofficial* New Zealand Black Caps Thread

[NZTailender]

"Doing a lot out there boys, absolute minefield"

 

[Bahnz]

I hear Jamieson is out on parental leave. Given how flaaaaaat the decks tend to be in Zim I'm imagining they'll want Santner in the XI. Will be interesting to see who gets the nod between Smith and Duffy. On form in the last 12 months I'd say it should be Duffy, but Smith will probably get the nod as the incumbent who can (theoretically at least) bring some handy lower order runs.

 

[NZTailender]

I hear Jamieson is out on parental leave. Given how flaaaaaat the decks tend to be in Zim I'm imagining they'll want Santner in the XI. Will be interesting to see who gets the nod between Smith and Duffy. On form in the last 12 months I'd say it should be Duffy, but Smith will probably get the nod as the incumbent who can (theoretically at least) bring some handy lower order runs.

Go bowling heavy imo

7-11 of Santner, Smith, Henry, Duffy and O'Rourke

Also Smith didn't play the last NZ v Eng test so can we call him an incumbent?

 

[Skyliner]

' Captain Tom Latham, Devon Conway, Daryl Mitchell and Tom Blundell have all been below their best for an extended period of time.
The only century any of them have scored in the Black Caps' last 18 tests was a slogged consolation effort by Blundell when a big loss was looming in the second innings of the second test against England last December.
Conway and Blundell would be the two under the most pressure, and while Walter is unlikely to make big changes for his first test series in charge, he did leave Conway – who is no longer centrally contracted – out of his first T20 squad.'

Stuff

www.stuff.co.nz

 

[Nintendo]

' Captain Tom Latham, Devon Conway, Daryl Mitchell and Tom Blundell have all been below their best for an extended period of time.
The only century any of them have scored in the Black Caps' last 18 tests was a slogged consolation effort by Blundell when a big loss was looming in the second innings of the second test against England last December.
Conway and Blundell would be the two under the most pressure, and while Walter is unlikely to make big changes for his first test series in charge, he did leave Conway – who is no longer centrally contracted – out of his first T20 squad.'

Stuff

www.stuff.co.nz

Bit harsh on Conway. He's been inconsistent, but he also played a huge part in that India series whitewash. Will young got POTS but IMO Conway was more important. Negated bumrah completely and made his runs in the first two tests when an unbelievable series win was still very much up in the air.

 

[Bahnz]

Think a lot of it comes down to how bad Conway looked. Even in India his runs felt pretty flukey, and once he got back to NZ he looked like a walking wicket in the first and second tests. There's a decent chance that Will Young will take his place in the WI series.

 

[ataraxia]

Blundell has to be dropped for Hay. Neither his batting or his keeping to pace are up to par any longer.

 

[Skyliner]

Bit harsh on Conway. He's been inconsistent, but he also played a huge part in that India series whitewash. Will young got POTS but IMO Conway was more important. Negated bumrah completely and made his runs in the first two tests when an unbelievable series win was still very much up in the air.

Yes, it was a bit of a selective pick of names there from the journo. Latham did play that one crucial innings during the India series as well. But when you look for those significant contributions then it's a case of picking a few gems out of an awful lot of dross isn't it. I guess when he says about people being 'well below their best' then it certainly does apply to Conway.....he looked absolutely world class for the first part of his test career & then - pretty much since he became a big wheel at the Super Kings - his test form has slumped. He's gone from imperious to workmanlike at best.

 

[Bahnz]

Yes, it was a bit of a selective pick of names there from the journo. Latham did play that one crucial innings during the India series as well. But when you look for those significant contributions then it's a case of picking a few gems out of an awful lot of dross isn't it. I guess when he says about people being 'well below their best' then it certainly does apply to Conway.....he looked absolutely world class for the first part of his test career & then - pretty much since he became a big wheel at the Super Kings - his test form has slumped. He's gone from imperious to workmanlike at best.

I think it's just a case of international cricket analysts working out how best to exploit that tendency of his to play a little outside the line of the ball when it's speared into his pads.

 

[Mike5181]

Bit harsh on Conway. He's been inconsistent, but he also played a huge part in that India series whitewash. Will young got POTS but IMO Conway was more important. Negated bumrah completely and made his runs in the first two tests when an unbelievable series win was still very much up in the air.

Even though he's **** now, i do think conway is a bit underrated in these discussions.

In games played together when both opening:

Tom Latham: 1093 with an average of 29.54. (think there was one 32* at number 3)
Devon Conway: 1358 with an average of 36.70

Conway also has some great away performances:
- player of the series against England away, including 200 at Lords
- top individual score with 54 in low scoring WTC final. second highest runs in match after Williamson.
- crucial scores of 91 (first test) and 74 (second test) against India in India. scored 201 runs in the first 2 tests, averaging 50 and pushing nz to 2-0 to win the series. only Ravindra had more runs in the first two games.

In January I went back and looked at the games Latham/Conway played together and the latter was comfortably the better of the two, so I don't support dropping him even if he looks kind of **** right now. He's only just turned 33, he's actually younger than Latham. We can still get some more cricket out of him and Will Young averages 44 at 3-5 in the order so probably shouldn't be opening.

 

[Bahnz]

The numbers between Latham and Conway look a lot tighter when you carve out Conway's stellar first 12 months though. From that point on it becomes Latham averaging 30 from 23 games, and Conway averaging 28 from 20 games. Take it forward another year and Conway's averaging sub-20 (though Latham's figures also read an anemic 24 from the same period).

Not saying Conway should be dispensed with - afterall he's been putting up comparable numbers to Latham's for some time. But he's clearly been struggling for quite a while, and at this point I heavily doubt that he'll ever get back to being the player he was in 2021.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Go bowling heavy imo

7-11 of Santner, Smith, Henry, Duffy and O'Rourke

Would you drop GP in your XI then?

 

[NZTailender]

Would you drop GP in your XI then?

Williamson is not touring right?

Latham*
Ravindra/Young
Young/Ravindra
Phillips
Mitchell
Hay
Santner
Smith
Henry
Duffy
O'Rourke

 

[Skyliner]

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