Here's my two cents.....
Champions Trophy............... World Cup (what I'd like to see, but will prob not happen)
Vincent ......... ................ Ryder
Astle ............................. Astle/ Vincent
Marshall ......................... Taylor
Fleming ......................... Fleming
Fulton ........................... Fulton
Oram ........................ ..... Oram
McCullum ..... .............. .. McCullum
Vettori ......... ................. Vettori
Franklin ........ ................ Franklin
Bond .............................. Bond
Gillespie. ......................... Gillespie
As a comparison: To me the team on the right looks much more dangerous, more well balanced, in both batting and bowling options (Taylor and Ryders bowling)
1)Ryder and Astle/Vincent opening would provide a right/left combination with two attacking options and less pressure on Vincent to try and smack everything. I think Vincent would be better if he batted a little(just a little) more sensibly. He seems to get out trying to smash it over the top all the time. Ryder is very attacking naturally so this would help out his opening partner.
2) Taylor is simply a more talented batsman than marshall. He can attack more, scare the bowlers more, his feilding is really good and he bowls a little spin. Taylor wins hands down. ( although Marshall is a good player)
3) Fleming, Fulton and Oram are heady players that I would be confident can control the middle part of a innings. This is where I think we lose it sometimes, we dither around in the middle of an innings and the runrate gets too high. You need calm and smart cricketers here.
4) McCullum is our best keeper and Vettori is our best spinner
5)I simply think Franklin is better than Mills now, has more potential than Mills, provides more variation (lefty) than Mills and is a better batsman than Mills.
6)I think Gillespie should be given a go with Bond and then be given a chance at the world cup(provided he does OK at the CT). I have only seen a little bit of him but he seemed pretty quick. I think Bond needs a fast bowling partner. You cant just have one fast bowler. They tend to work better in tandem. You think of ,,,,,,,,,Ambrose and Walsh, Lillee and Thompson,,,,,pollock and Donald,,,,,, Waqar and Wasim......I am not for a moment suggesting that our two will be anything like as good as those combinations but you see my point.. The batsmen have no respite if fast bowling is coming from both ends........Remember the world cup against Aus last time when Bond demolished the Aussies from one end but we had no other attacking option to clean up the tail when Bond ran out of overs, and so the Aussies got of the hook,, nudged around our mediums and won the game. If we had another fast bowler bowling then 140kph at the Aussie tail might have been more useful than 130kph. Typing for a long time is hard.
7) The last point. With Ryder , taylor, and Astle(guess) in the side, the only members of the team above that dont bowl are Fleming, Fulton, and and the keeper........8 options in total, while the team on the left just has 6, with Astle the 6th bowler..So I think it has a better batting line-up, more talented and more dangerous.......with the same front line bowlers but more options for the 5th, 6th, and 7th, and even 8th bowler slots.
