***Official*** West Indies in New Zealand 2013/14

[Flem274*]

Talent is such a funny word. Are Roach, Rampaul, Best et al really in a different league to Southee, Boult, Wagner, Milne et al? I don't think so.

Granted, the Windies greatest advantage is they have Gayle, Samuels and Chanderpaul. New Zealand are a couple of years behind with Taylor being between Samuels and Chanders quality wise and a few of the others still getting up to speed. Our flat pitches are the great leveller though so even with KW out our batting should punish bowlers who can't swing the ball, which is seems some of the Windies bowlers are guilty of. Brownlie in particular will enjoy his emergency number three role if the bowling has pace and bounce but zero movement.

Even with out mini-injury crisis I still think we should win at home, just, on the back of our bowling attack. The Windies would be big favourites if we were playing on their slower spin friendly pitches but thankfully we're not. This will be a close series imo.

 

[Flem274*]

*checks fall of wicket domestically* Though if Brownlie would stop getting out to the oppositions weakest bowler every FC game he plays at number three that would be swell. WAC.

 

[Kippax]

.

Rampaul is "carrying a little weight", but he is clearly fitter than both Roach and Cotterrell. It was pretty obvious from the Champions League and the A team tour of India that Rampaul was fitter than that duo.

That leads me to believe that Rampaul was really omitted because of yet another personality clash with our overbearing coach.

A 90% Rampaul is also much better than a 100% Gabriel, who is clearly not good enough.

 

[hendrix]

Just going over the A squad again...How the hell Jeet Raval hasn't made it in when the likes of Tom Latham, Todd Astle, James Baker, Mark Craig, Anurag Verma, and Andrew Mathieson have I will never know.

He's at the perfect age to make his test debut and yet he hasn't even played for the A team yet, to my knowledge.

What's going on there?

 

[Hurricane]

Just going over the A squad again...How the hell Jeet Raval hasn't made it in when the likes of Tom Latham, Todd Astle, James Baker, Mark Craig, Anurag Verma, and Andrew Mathieson have I will never know.

He's at the perfect age to make his test debut and yet he hasn't even played for the A team yet, to my knowledge.

What's going on there?

Are you talking about the Otago / Canterbury XI? which they admitted to due too scheduling concerns

 

[hendrix]

Are you talking about the Otago / Canterbury XI? which they admitted to due too scheduling concerns

oh yeah.
still, should've been on the SC tour.
Actually given that he grew up in india and played under 17 cricket in India they might've thought he didn't need the experience, I suppose.

 

[Dan]

Rutherford
Raval
Fulton
Taylor
Brownlie
Anderson
Watling

as a potential Kane-less top 7?

 

[Bahnz]

oh yeah.
still, should've been on the SC tour.
Actually given that he grew up in india and played under 17 cricket in India they might've thought he didn't need the experience, I suppose.

Nah, reckon he was just left out because he didn't play enough eye-catching innings to get the selectors excited. He was solid without ever being exceptional, which can be easily overlooked. It's the exact same thing with Nathan McCullum, except in reverse.

 

[ohnoitsyou]

Rutherford
Raval
Fulton
Taylor
Brownlie
Anderson
Watling

as a potential Kane-less top 7?

McCullum?

 

[Dan]

McCullum?

How did I forget him, of all people? My subconscious must have dropped him for poor form

Ignoring that, would Fulton to 3 and Raval opening be an option?

 

[Bahnz]

Raval seems a fair way off the selectors radar at the moment - although his selection to play with the 7 early arriving WI players in the warm-up match could indicating that they're starting to take notice of him. More likely to be Fulton, Rutherford, Brownlie at the moment - although Brownlie's been in fairly forgettable form for Canterbury

 

[Flem274*]

I'm pretty surprised Raval is barely on the radar considering he ticks all the usual NZ selector boxes, and even a Hesson box.

[x] young
[x] runs
[x] competent technique based on what we've seen so far
[x] FC double hundred

[x] shots off both feet

 

[hendrix]

Rutherford
Raval
Fulton
Taylor
Brownlie
Anderson
Watling

as a potential Kane-less top 7?

My ideal would be a straight swap of Raval for Rutherford, and Brownlie/Jesse for Williamson

Raval
Fulton
Brownlie/Ryder
Taylor
McCullum
Anderson/Ryder
Watling
(Vettori
Southee
Boult
Wagner)

That's a very strong team.

 

[Flem274*]

Ryder isn't going to come back until India tour, and I'd prefer Rutherford was given some more rope. Yes he's one dimensional but it doesn't mean he is doomed to fail. If he continues to fail then fair enough, demote him to A cricket and FC and ask him to add more shots to his game over the winter break.

Rutherford is always going to be prone to an early exit because his greatest strength is in the same zone as the bowler is trying to hit. The upside is Rutherford can put the bowler off their length if he sends them to the fence early, and when they bowl a little shorter he can make use of the good cut shot he has.

Though unfortunately I think he needs to get rid of his backfoot fiddles quicksmart because bowlers know they can get him there, but at least they're using the new ball on bouncers instead of swinging it when they use that plan.

 

[Bahnz]

I'm pretty surprised Raval is barely on the radar considering he ticks all the usual NZ selector boxes, and even a Hesson box.

[x] young
[x] runs
[x] competent technique based on what we've seen so far
[x] FC double hundred

[x] shots off both feet

Yeah I think we all are. But it's probably worth remembering that he's been nowhere near as productive as Redmond in the past couple of seasons, nor has he posted any BIIIIIG scores since the year that he cracked that 200. And now that we've bigged him up and called for his selection, he'll probably go the rest of the PS averaging sub-30 and fade out of view for another couple of years.

 

[hendrix]

he also has the mark of a successful opener: used to be a bowler until his late teens. Seems to remove the ego, which is quite critical to realising that a ball actually might just be too good to try and hit.

 

[Flem274*]

My only criticism of Raval is he can tend to defend with his bat and pad together against both spin and pace, and it's got him lbw a few times now. I may be wrong but I've always preferred what KW, Taylor and Anderson do which is defend with a straight bat in front of the pads and smother the spin with soft hands.

Apart from that he looks very very solid.

 

[centurymaker]

Windies are screwed now, no Roach, Rampaul or Field Edwards. And more importantly, Sammy's been retained as the captain.

2-0 NZ

 

[centurymaker]

So who isn't injured (yet)?

Rutherford
Fulton
-
-
-
Anderson
Watling
Sodhi
Southee
Wagner
Boult

Why not Vettori? He took a 5-fer recently.

 

[Prensel]

Windies are screwed now, no Roach, Rampaul or Field Edwards. And more importantly, Sammy's been retained as the captain.

2-0 NZ

Cant wait to see what WindieWeathers has to say about this