*Unofficial* New Zealand Black Caps Thread

[RMBolton]

No Conway?

Ravindra doesn't belong in the squad. Unless someone's injured, he certainly doesn't belong in the XI.

 

[jcas0167]

so, what are your first 11's lookin like for the t20 wc

for me its

Allen (wk)
ravindra
mitchell
philips
chapman
neesham
bracewell
santner (c)
henry
ferguson
boult

with a restraining order filed by the t20 format against kane and southee

Allen (wk)
Conway
Williamson
Mitchell
Phillips
Chapman
Bracewell (c)
Santner
Henry
Ferguson
Southee

 

[Moss]

Similar problem to the ODI World Cup where Mitchell, Phillips and Chapman are all suited to no.4 or 5, but not ideal for no.6 where going berserk from ball one seems to be the order of the day. Chapman in particular is wasted if he doesn't get to bat at no.5 or higher. So Neesham would probably get my vote for no.6. Good thing Bracewell is back, he'll be extremely crucial as the finisher and will probably be a more consistent winner with his bowling than Sodhi over the course of the tournament.

 

[NZTailender]

Munro has officially called it quits on his international career. Looks like he was waiting for the WC squad announcement.

 

[Moss]

Munro has officially called it quits on his international career. Looks like he was waiting for the WC squad announcement.

Think he was about 5 years ahead of his time (10 years given NZC’s attitude to selection). Tended to be very rocks and diamonds when turning out for NZ, but would have been an asset in the last few years seeing how NZ have been indexing on T20s. Can feel justifiably miffed at the difference in treatment from Boult or Neesham, when it comes to national selection while being a T20 mercenary. And yeah, too bad we’ll never find out how his FC 50 average would have translated to tests (Phillips is providing some hints).

 

[jcas0167]

Dylan Cleaver on Munro:

That being said, you can compare him to others and make a strong case that he was treated poorly. The guy averaged more than 50 in first-class cricket, but got just one test on a horror tour to South Africa (it was the all-out-for-45 tour, though he didn’t play that test), nicked out first ball in the first dig, got 15 in the second, both batting at No 7, and was never tried again. Tough gig.


Knowing he was always on the periphery, Munro made the decision to be a T20 gun for hire and has done that, for the most part, exceedingly well. Certainly well enough to have played for his country in the past four years. His last seven T20I scores were 30, 46, 59, 26, 14, 64 and 15. That’s 254 runs at a strike rate of 143.


Even at 37, he’s a better T20 player than some who are going to the Caribbean.

Back to the bad old days

The Week That Was features Colin Munro and the Weekend That Will Be forecasts misery on the horizon.

dylancleaver.substack.com

 

[RMBolton]

If not for the fact that I'd have Seifert ahead of him due to wanting a proper keeping option, I wouldn't have minded having Munro in the T20WC squad. Certainly a better top order option than Ravindra.

A question: who would've had to make way for Munro to get a run in the Test side?

 

[Moss]

A question: who would've had to make way for Munro to get a run in the Test side?

From late 2013 to early 2016 he may have been eyeing the spot for which Anderson and Neesham were battling it out. Both started so well in test cricket he was probably an afterthought for the selectors. I guess they ‘looked the part’ more than he did too, and were better bowlers.

In theory McCullum retiring in 2016 would have been the perfect time to bring him in as a similar sort of player but they went for Nicholls, which did pay off at least till 2020 or so. Can remember Ronchi playing as a specialist batsman in India in 2016 (and doing well), that was also another opportunity missed.