Hopkins lol. Seriously, I'd still be dead against what I'm about to suggest, but you might as well have picked Williamson or someone who might just be decent if you think Styris is finished. Sure Williamson would probably get ****ed up being so raw and all but he could at least average over 20...
McCullum needs to bat like he did against SA, England et al when he was in form. None of this blocking crap unless he actualy learns to do it properly.
Ryder...is he an opener? I honestly don't know. He can do it to a degree, but I'd be fascinated to see him in the middle order (3-4) if a spot opened up.
Broom is far too low. The selectors have seen he can hit, great. But he's not that good at doing it from ball one. he's a 4-5, but of course Taylor and Elliott are there.
This team looks like we're trying to cram all our best List A bats bar Styris into the side, then picking some of the worst players as our reserves.
If you're not going to pick Franklin for any reason, then Butler gets Diamanti's spot. Both bowling all rounders, except Butler can actualy bowl threateningly (and maybe one day economically
).
Jeetan Patel vs Nathan McCullum? Dunno tbh on who is the better spinner, though McCullum easily the better bat.
Lets see how this pans out before we get too worked up though. The highly criticised and massively under-rated bowlers who never get any credit from our NZ public unless your name is Bond or Vettori may save our apparently amazing batting from looking like dicks yet again.
