Black Caps batsman to miss third test
Black Caps opener Devon Conway will miss the third test against England.
Looks like Young is in and surprise, surprise Chapman is joining the squad....
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Looks like Young is in and surprise, surprise Chapman is joining the squad....
Retiring Southee deserves to go out on his own terms with third-Test swansong in Hamilton
Struggles aside, Scotty Stevenson insists the NZ great has earned the right to play the final Test against England.
SS is a FW.Retiring Southee deserves to go out on his own terms with third-Test swansong in Hamilton
Struggles aside, Scotty Stevenson insists the NZ great has earned the right to play the final Test against England.sportnation.nz
We need our best possible 11 on the field especially after the kicking we have been subject to in the last few weeks.
Yep surprise, surprise.Black Caps batsman to miss third test
Black Caps opener Devon Conway will miss the third test against England.www.nzherald.co.nz
Looks like Young is in and surprise, surprise Chapman is joining the squad....
Although after the last few recalls of Nicholls and Chapman who came off no form whatsoever, he at least scored a double century a couple of weeks back.
He is actually a decent player, but this is a lost series at the end of a failed WTC cycle. What are the selectors waiting for?
Not a true opener imo.
Neither is Young for that matter
No, he's not
Nor Conway, hence why I feel sorry for him!
Latham is the only guy that is, apart from imo Ravindra. I reckon if Ravindra played for the Indians he would be an opening batsman.
Yeah mate. Only playing there as we have no better options
Scotty Stevenson can retire alsoRetiring Southee deserves to go out on his own terms with third-Test swansong in Hamilton
Struggles aside, Scotty Stevenson insists the NZ great has earned the right to play the final Test against England.
Southee should have been shoulder tapped a couple of years ago.
His continued selection is symptomatic of the bigger issues in the team. Almost impossible to get in; almost impossible to get dropped.
A team based on aged 30+ players is well beyond its peak with little forward planning and the results are what you expect with a team of geriatrics.
God he’s annoying. Was a decent union commentator, cricket must have the highest barrier to entry as there is 40-60 uninterrupted seconds after every ball that your expected to say something interesting or banter pleasently with the other comms
If Southee and stead hadn’t mugged off Wagner then I wouldn’t care they are giving him a sign off. I don’t think he’s blocking a genuinely good bowler at the moment.
But they did mug him off, rules for thee (saffa) but not for me
NZ seems to have a strategy of waiting until players are mid 20’s before giving them a chance. The commitment is long to get there.
We all know the drop off in sport post school. How many leave the sport because they can’t see the path fast enough to make a living as a professional?
For those in the know, is the lack of junior talent because they are simply not as good or do we have a high drop out rate?
Start the sack Gary Stead chat. Teams needs a reset and new talent to be brought though ASAP
The other half of that question really is:
if not Southee then who do you bring in for this 3rd test that is also young enough to be a future investment?
Best six quick bowling performers in the Plunket Shield this season to date are:
- Blair Tickner (31 yrs)
- Jarrod McKay (24 yrs)
- Brett Hampton (33 yrs)
- Daniel Ferns (30 yrs)
- Scott Kuggeleijn (33 yrs)
- Liam Dudding (30 yrs)
Possibles:
- Cameron Paul (19 yrs)
- Ray Toole (27 yrs)
- Sean Solia (31 yrs) Note: also LH bats - 171* not out this week
- Matthew Fisher(25 yrs)
Only McKay, Fisher and Paul fit that bill at this point. Either could be seen as a future prospect beyond this season.
Perhaps the really important question is about the coaching leadership looking ahead. It is clear to most that it has become overly conservative and resistant to change. This team will benefit from a progressive and flexible approach. See what Baz has done with the England team. Can NZC afford to attract Fleming or Vettori back into the fold? Can they afford not to?
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I see Will Clark scored his maiden century and maiden 5 wicket bag in the same match for Central Districts.
Zac Foulkes for Canterbury?
Southee has regressed in his contributions to the point its well worth the risk of throwing in some newbie to test them.
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What would Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes do in Gary Stead and Tom Latham's shoes?
Andrew VoermanDecember 10, 2024 •12:27pm
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ANALYSIS: The morning after the Black Caps suffered their second test defeat in as many weeks against England, Gary Stead woke up and went to throw balls to Rachin Ravindra.
But what if the New Zealand coach instead woke up and found himself nine years younger, and going by Baz instead of Gaz, in the shoes of England coach Brendon McCullum?
And what if Black Caps captain Tom Latham found himself in the shoes of England captain Ben Stokes – and vice versa – in a situation ripped from the Freaky Friday franchise?
If McCullum and Stokes were in charge of New Zealand, would they have looked at the third test at Seddon Park in Hamilton, a dead rubber starting on Saturday, as a chance to blood some new players, knowing their team wasn’t scheduled to play another test until July next year?
The English approach to selection in the Bazball era was reinforced at the end of play in Wellington on Sunday, when Stokes talked up 21-year-old Jacob Bethell, who made 96 in England’s second innings after being picked as the backup batter for this tour despite averaging just 25.44 in first-class cricket without a century to his name.
“I know there was a bit made of Beth at No 3 given the lack of first-class cricket batting up the top of the order – should we bat him lower down and ease him into the trials and tribulations of test cricket? But me and Baz don’t think like that.
“You’ve got a young lad with so much potential and talent, why not let him go out there and expose himself to test cricket at its toughest?”
The contrast with the Black Caps’ approach, where conservatism is often – but not always – the order of the day, couldn’t be clearer.
Here are three selection calls that might have been made if McCullum and Stokes were in charge of the Black Caps.
Rhys Mariu for Devon Conway
Conway won’t play in the third test, as he will stay home in Wellington to await the birth of his first child with partner Kim, and that means Will Young will open the batting, return to a position where he has been tried and found wanting – averaging 22.76 in 21 test innings.Young has garnered a lot of sympathy in recent weeks, after missing out on the first two tests despite being the player of the series in the Black Caps’ 3-0 win in India beforehand, but he is not the long-term solution at the top of the order.
With captain Latham searching for runs as the Black Caps’ senior opener, finding someone new to fill the tricky position alongside him looks like being the team’s most pressing issue during their seven-month wait to play again, which is why it’s promising that there’s someone averaging 71.11 through their first 20 innings there in the Plunket Shield.
Canterbury coach Peter Fulton told The Post last week that Rhys Mariu, who turns 23 on Sunday, has “a long way to go,” and that his next step would be to play some New Zealand A cricket “in the next year or two”.
But would there really be anything to lose from giving him a crack this week, when he’s in the form of his life, having scored 520 runs, including two centuries, in four innings this summer, as of Tuesday morning?
It wouldn’t be sending a 19-year-old Ken Rutherford to open the batting against the West Indies in their pomp in the 1980s, that’s for sure.
Mitch Hay for Tom Blundell
Blundell may have ended a 30-innings wait for a test century on Sunday, when he made 115 as the Black Caps were dismissed for 259 chasing 583 to win the second test, and he deserves some credit for that, but like his previous highest score this year – a second-innings 60 in the second test against Sri Lanka in Galle in September – they were low-pressure runs, with the game already gone.He would never be dropped the match after making a century, but a call could potentially have been made with an eye to the future ahead of this series.
While every test the Black Caps play is important by itself, 2025 will effectively serve as a launchpad for 2026 and 2027, where they will play three tests in England, two against India at home, four in Australia, two against Sri Lanka at home and two in Pakistan in the space of 10 months, and it’s hard to see a 36-year-old Blundell still being the wicketkeeper then.
Canterbury’s Mitch Hay looks to have the edge on Otago’s Max Chu as the next wicketkeeper in line, having recently made his one-day and Twenty20 international debuts in Sri Lanka. Both are aged 24.
Hay averages 48.17 through 33 innings in first-class cricket and his skill with the gloves was on display in round four of the Plunket Shield on Monday, when he stood up to the stumps while Canterbury’s quicks were operating against Otago in Rangiora.
Zak Foulkes or Matt Fisher for Tim Southee
All signs are pointing towards Southee playing his 107th and final test in Hamilton, just as he planned it when he announced his pending retirement back on November 15, but that will be a decision driven by sentiment rather than form.The way the 35-year-old has been bowling, it’s likely the Black Caps could have improved on his series return of four wickets at an average of 61.66 and a strike rate of 101.6 had they gone with any number of uncapped bowlers.
It would have been fascinating to see how selections would have unfolded not just in this series, but in the one before it in India, had Wellington’s Ben Sears not missed both of them after having minor knee surgery.
In his absence, Otago’s Jacob Duffy has been the backup seamer, but aged 30, he is not a player for the future, even though he has taken 63 wickets at 29.57 in the last three Plunket Shield seasons.
Canterbury’s Zak Foulkes – aged 22 and impressing already in white-ball international cricket – has taken 43 wickets at 22.86 in the same time, while Northern Districts’ Matt Fisher – aged 25 – has taken 45 wickets at 21.09.
Both look like potential test players – just like Southee was when he debuted as a 19-year-old in the third test in a home series against England back in 2008, albeit one where the series was still alive.
The veteran’s farewell test has been billed as a full-circle moment, but a full-circle moment of another kind would probably have gone down better with Black Caps fans.
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Heard from someone who is close to a former blackcap allrounder that McCullum has been approached about coaching the kiwis and nzc are prepared to wait out his current England contract.
I don't think England would let him go easily. Interesting to see how this plays out as Stead's days are surely numbered.
I don't think England would let him go easily. Interesting to see how this plays out as Stead's days are surely numbered.
They are not waiting for anything.
They have shown their true colours time and again. We simply have no ambition.
Two of Daryl Mitchells quotes this year prove the environment they operate in:
On the fucking embarassing 2nd test loss to Australia in Christchurch
- "we're not defined by results.."
On the fucking outrageous victories in India
- "we're just kiwis taking on the world"
The administration have instilled that we are battlers happy to compete. It's embarrassing.
We are defined by results and we're not kiwis taking on the world. We're professional cricketers that should be trying to win every single game.
As a life long tragic I've seen some pretty shit periods of NZ cricket but there is just something abjectly wrong at the moment. I can't recall a better side playing so poorly. Pathetic
I don't think he'll ever do it.
If Bmac wants to continue coaching (which to me is a big if) he will do so on the T20 circuit.
Look at Stephen Fleming - he should be the coach of NZ, but why would he give up his IPL commitments which pay him about NZD $1m for a few months work.
Gary Stead is paid about NZD $350,000 (easy to see why he has hung around) but typically being the head coach of NZ requires to be outside of the country nearly 200 - 250 days a year.
I just can't see Bmac coming out of a dual coaching role with Eng, earning mega bucks and taking up the NZ coaching role. Could be wrong but I suspect by then (if not already) he will be completely set for life and will go back to his first love of horses