Even under a proper test championship schedule where teams played home away/home in consistent basis was implemented as ICC said it would - I would not expect AUS to hosts any other team in boxing day/new years tests given the current realities (financial/aus fan interests)/strengths of their team other than England, India, South Africa especially if its two teams touring like this season.
His 222 @ C'Church 02 was very McCullum-esque & 156 & Perth 01 was similar to a few of Williamsons classy recent hundreds vs very good pace attacks.
Who do you reckon was better/most useful as an overall cricketer? Astle, McMillan, or Styris?
Honestly I feel that Styris was dumped from the test team way too early, particularly considering how weak our whole batting lineup was when he was made an odi specialist (and then retired).
He got dropped after you got rekt in South Africa; replaced by Fulton+Sinclair for this match/series:
Astle in general, although how Styris evolved from a sort of Harris/Larsen type medium pacer to a solid top -order batsmen was one of those cricket career developments that surprised me.
Good question. McMillan had the highest ceiling but should probably be rated behind both of the others. I think I'd go Styris>Astle>McMillan
Hard to see how McMillan had the highest ceiling TBF. Astle for me of all NZ batsman of this period was had talent to be closer to the elite batsman of the time, if he had a few more notable scores vs big teams.
Ye ha fair point, I too am not sure if McMillan's average was a sign that he under-achieved or flattering.
jesus I never realised how similar Boult was to O'Connor
Both Styris and Astle initially featured quite low down the order for their provinces and were very effective with their medium pace. I recall Styris batting about 9 or 10 for ND in a game at Mount Manganui when he was 19 and he looked quite a powerful and clean striker. When Simon Doull retired he mentioned that he thought Styris would become a very good batsman.
Imagine we'll get them for 3 at home, though.
Yes they will in 2017, but remember the argument against NZ is they are not commercial viable to hosts for the big 3 nations plus SA & those 5 ODI's vs AUS was not in the original 2014-2019 FTP - http://static.espncricinfo.com/db/DOWNLOAD/0000/0045/ftp_2015_2019.pdf it had to have been recently negotiated.
Lets say NZ win one of these upcoming series vs AUS & draw the other, while SA win India India - that NZ vs SA serious could be a battle for # 1 test team clash & that surely would deserve more than 2 tests.
