I'm going to wait until January before finalising my wanted team. We still have a few FC games to get a look at Vettori's form, see if Cachopa continues his run, if Milne backs up the other day and if Gillespie finds murder mode. Jeets, Astle and Vettori face off will be good as well.
Who knows, maybe Rutherford will smash a ton against Southee, Boult, Arnel, Aldridge. Failing against Milne, Mathieson, Trego, Lamb, KNB and Cachopa is a black mark against his name though.
For now, the below are my absolute locks
1.
2.
3. Williamson
4. Taylor
5. Flynn
6.
7.
8.
9. Bracewell
10. Southee
11. Boult
I have no idea who the best gloveman is, but they should get the gloves. If it is Watling, cool, he bats 7. If it's Derek, he gets them and Watling can scrap for number six with Brownlie. If Ryder wants to make a return he bats five with Flynn at six. I'm not sure who I think the best spinner is yet but I'm leaning towards Jeets, but if the pitches suit we should boost it with four quicks and be macho. Realistically McCullum and Guppers are locks but you never know. They had a couple of failures and if someone absolutely smashes CD or ND they will at least be considered I feel (before the selectors go with Baz and Guppers obv). The selectors might also decide Watling should open again or continue to back Nicol.
If I were to make a team for the first test in South Africa then conservatively I would go with:
McCullum
Guptill
Williamson
Taylor
Flynn
Brownlie/Vettori
Watling (wk)
Bracewell
Southee
Patel
Boult
Gillespie
Wagner
Cachopa
Brownlie/Vettori
But I really don't think we know enough at this stage to make concrete decisions.
The two most important tasks on our hands after the current test is won or drawn are to decide who the best pure keeper is and sort out who we want opening and then work with them 24/7 from now until the start of the test (rest them from ODIs if they are ODI players) so we can prevent this 10/2 rubbish that happens every single test. It is the single most important factor in why we can't post big totals and ultimately lose test matches. Williamson and Taylor are not openers and they can't score hundreds every game, especially under the enormous pressure the openers put them under every single innings. If Williamson and Taylor get out early, which will and does happen, 5 and 6 are under even more pressure. It starts at the top and I don't care if we send in a couple of tailend nuffies with awesome blocks if that is what it takes to be at least 100/2 when Taylor and Williamson come to the wicket. Even 50/2 would be a welcome change, that's how bad it is.