Bahnz
Hall of Fame Member
He certainly should get an exemption. I can't think of anything more exceptional than a global pandemic leaving him physically incapable of returning to New Zealand.
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*Unofficial* New Zealand Black Caps Thread
- Thread starter NZTailender
- Start date
Prince EWS
Global Moderator
It's an absolutely classic case for an exemption. They've given them before on much more lenient grounds. I reckon he'll get one.
thundaboult
International Debutant
You're right. I do think however that if we are to pick a genuine quick for the test team, need to start looking outside of ferguson...sears or fisher for me. Once upon a time even kuggelejin was a pick for me, so goddam durable. 90 something fc games and has a few fc hundreds. Pretty handy. Never really thought he was a t20 player...where he ended up being picked mostly for intl games.
Flem274*
123/5
Has he had much opportunity since injury to play fc? Jsmodis and t20s cut into fc development a lot (like Santner's).
I can see their logic, I just don't think it's a test resource we can spurn so lightly. We have a lot more perfectly fine to world class bowlers in odis than in tests, and we're starting to experience the consequences of not developing bowlers outside the trio (duo really - Wagner got randomly dropped a lot and we'd go crawling back after a loss).
KJ is injured, Boult semi retired, Wagner looks done, now Henry has a niggle - this should not have been a too bad a problem given the raw talent we've had gradually emerge in the past 10 years.
Bahnz
Hall of Fame Member
It's a fair point, the combination of JAMODI's/T20's, IPL commitments and injuries would've meant he would've been rarely available to turn out for Auckland in FC cricket, and if you're only available for 1 or 2 games a season and the selectors have made it clear you're not in the top 5 preferred seamers in the country, you'd probably think: "Eh, let's put the feet up for the week and get ready for the Super Smash". He did say in early 2021 that he was still committed to trying to break into the test side, but I think that was with the WTC final in mind. There's no doubt that we felt his absence keenly in Pakistan, I think NZ would've been odds-on to win 2-0 if we'd been able to call on Ferguson to mop up the tail on both day 5's. For that matter, I also saw Milne getting some tasty reverse in the Wellington v Otago game yesterday. Doubt it'll ever happen, but still worth a thought the next time we're touring somewhere hot and dry.
HeathDavisSpeed
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Putting aside the non-cricket baggage, Kuggeleijn just doesn’t do enough with the ball. He might be reasonably quick, but that's not much use if you can't move it a little. Hence, his FC bowling average the wrong side of 30. No way should he be anywhere near the Test team.
Here's his season-by-season NZ FC bowling stats. There's a decent period in there between 2015 and 2019-ish, but it's not exactly screaming 'pick me' either.
For comparison, here's Doug Bracewell - comparable as a bowling all-rounder of sorts. Similar bowling output, but over a longer period of time over the same period.
Days of Grace
International Captain
Will Trent Boult play another test for New Zealand?
Flem274*
123/5
Yeah Kuggs doesn't seem to move the ball around so when he's bowling an awkward length at pace he's a tough customer, but often he's pretty plain too.
Sri Lanka will look pretty juicy I reckon.
50/50 right now, I'd reckon. You'd love to think he could play SA and Aus next summer at home, and maybe finish on England at home (again, jeepers we play them a lot) in late 2024. But who knows.
Flem274*
123/5
So I'm willing to give Sodhi a go at home. If he can maintain current improvement, a reasonable leggie can render the nature of our decks irrelevant and be a strong advantage over touring sides and their fingerspinners. Bazball will be a threat to his confidence.
Speaking of which, I hope we don't try to counter it with spicy decks. All we'd do is give a much improved Anderson an opportunity to paper over his average in this great nation and we can't have that. I want to laugh while England bowl a foot too short as usual and whine about the ball and the pitch.
Anyway we've got a few options open to us now. I think I lean towards insurance against the depleted attack with 5 proper bowlers, one of whom must bat.
Conway
Latham
Williamson
Young
Mitchell
Blundell (wk)
Smith?
Sodhi
Southee (c)
Henry
Ferguson/Sears
Smith is one spot too high at this stage but is 24 and debuted at 18. His stats (26 bat and 30 bowl) don't compare poorly with Macewell's for Wellington (a 30 bat 42 bowl) or Santner's ND numbers (30 bat 48 bowl), especially since Smith averages 18 with the ball for Welly.
I compared them to Doug Bracewell and he has a 30 bat 29 bowl split for CD across 71 matches. Dougeh.
The other option to the allrounder is Mitchell bowls a lot more and we play another specialist batsman.
Went looking at other allrounders and reminded myself McConchie averages 90 this season so far compared to beloved Ravindra and Foxcroft's 34 each. Bit of a statement from the bloke. I don't think he's bowled at all though.
Speaking of which, I hope we don't try to counter it with spicy decks. All we'd do is give a much improved Anderson an opportunity to paper over his average in this great nation and we can't have that. I want to laugh while England bowl a foot too short as usual and whine about the ball and the pitch.
Anyway we've got a few options open to us now. I think I lean towards insurance against the depleted attack with 5 proper bowlers, one of whom must bat.
Conway
Latham
Williamson
Young
Mitchell
Blundell (wk)
Smith?
Sodhi
Southee (c)
Henry
Ferguson/Sears
Smith is one spot too high at this stage but is 24 and debuted at 18. His stats (26 bat and 30 bowl) don't compare poorly with Macewell's for Wellington (a 30 bat 42 bowl) or Santner's ND numbers (30 bat 48 bowl), especially since Smith averages 18 with the ball for Welly.
I compared them to Doug Bracewell and he has a 30 bat 29 bowl split for CD across 71 matches. Dougeh.
The other option to the allrounder is Mitchell bowls a lot more and we play another specialist batsman.
Went looking at other allrounders and reminded myself McConchie averages 90 this season so far compared to beloved Ravindra and Foxcroft's 34 each. Bit of a statement from the bloke. I don't think he's bowled at all though.
Moss
International Captain
They’re not dropping Macewell after his showing in the 2nd test. He’ll be given an extended run as the allrounder at 7. It’ll probably mean 4 pacemen, whether that includes Wagner and even Tickner I don’t know.
Giving Sodhi the opportunity to show his progress would probably be the right thing to do though.
Giving Sodhi the opportunity to show his progress would probably be the right thing to do though.
Prince EWS
Global Moderator
dougeh
jcas0167
International Debutant
I think that's just Ken Rutherford being Ken Rutherford and why I loved it when he was captain. He would give his unvarnished thoughts. He hit on a few good points, not just Latham (who he acknowledged overall had a terrific record as opener and a big role to play) but the contracting system and concerns about who will follow the golden generation. A shame he hasn't become a regular commentator.
Fuller Pilch
Hall of Fame Member
Predictions:
Wagner will be given a chance to retire at home and reach 250 wickets vs England. Jamieson will replace him against SL.
I also think Phillips will be picked ahead of Young.
I would love to see Nathan Smith given a chance, but really can't see it happening.
NZTailender
I can't believe I ate the whole thing
Yeah I feel like Phillips has jumped Young now which is IMHO a bit unfair but thems the breaks I suppose. WHo was it (in the NZ cricket team) who said if you failed on an A Tour you get discarded for a while? It's like Young's lower returns being shuffled around in all the teams has meant he's cast out now.
I'd like to see them both play tbh
Bahnz
Hall of Fame Member
I'm just glad that NZ don't have any more significant overseas tours scheduled for the remainder of the year, meaning I can now cancel my SS Now subscription until the World Cup starts.
TheBrand
First Class Debutant
Pakistan in April for 5 ODIs and 5 T20s and England in September for 4 ODIs and 4 T20s.