straw man
Hall of Fame Member
Hopkins was certainly a joke selection, but not the biggest problem in this batting lineup. That would be the batting order which is unbalanced and mixed up.
When you have two naturally aggressive players in Taylor and McCullum feeling they cannot take risks and playing what is not at all their natural games to the detriment of the team then there is an obvious problem. Happened because they know that a) the other top order players are also hitters, b) their colleagues at 6,7,8 are inconsistent and c) 6,7,8 are also not hitters, so they (the top order) need to stay in until they end so they can do the hitting out too.
A healthy mix of strokemakers, proper batsmen, nudgers and hitters throughout the top 7 works for most teams and has worked for NZ in the past. Whereas lumping all the guys who play similarly together leads to spectacular failures (and occasional spectacular successes). Needs fixing.
When you have two naturally aggressive players in Taylor and McCullum feeling they cannot take risks and playing what is not at all their natural games to the detriment of the team then there is an obvious problem. Happened because they know that a) the other top order players are also hitters, b) their colleagues at 6,7,8 are inconsistent and c) 6,7,8 are also not hitters, so they (the top order) need to stay in until they end so they can do the hitting out too.
A healthy mix of strokemakers, proper batsmen, nudgers and hitters throughout the top 7 works for most teams and has worked for NZ in the past. Whereas lumping all the guys who play similarly together leads to spectacular failures (and occasional spectacular successes). Needs fixing.
