England in New Zealand

[Leicester Fox]

Is Miller picking the team on this tour? Or at least having input? Anyway looking at our sides I don't think it's a coincidence that we know our ODI side and they're playing well and we don't know our best test side and they're playing average at best, hopefully some of the bowlers will produce match winning performances so we know our best side and know who to play this summer.

Oh and my cousin who trains with Lancashire saw the players come back from their breaks the other day. He was watching Fred the in the nets, apparently he's batting well And Sajid Mahmood bowled what would have been 4 wides, sounds like him.

 

[Ollie_H]

3 words;
Good Old Saj

 

[evertonfan]

Even if Saj was bowling wides he'd still have gotten Flintoff out.

 

[Sureshot]

The squad is in New Zealand, they flew out yesterday. Our first tour game (before the T20s and ODIs) is on the 2nd, which is Friday.

 

[evertonfan]

Blimey. This tour has come around so quickly. Seems like just yesterday when we were getting hammered by the Lankans.

 

[Leicester Fox]

Actually apparently Fred was looking pretty good and twatting it everywhere when it came into his net. Just hope he isn't rushed back into the side.

 

[freddiw]

cannot wait for this only a few days till it starts
awesome build up and series

with vettori bowling negative lines NZ dont have a strike bowler and have no real fight
cannot see England losing

 

[Kev]

Famous last words!

Judging on recent England performances, If I were a NZ fan I'd be quietly confident of an upset.

 

[irottev]

with vettori bowling negative lines NZ dont have a strike bowler

Where do you get that idea? About Vettori and his negative lines? He's in the form of his life.

Chris Martin is a strike bowler.

I agree to an extent though. We're going to struggle in the bowing AND batting departments in the tests.

I might go down the road later on this week and watch Canterbury play England in the warm up if i'm not busy.

And I think this series will be closer then people think, however, of course England are favorites.

 

[RoboRocks]

England should do much better in the tests than in Sri Lanka. The conditions are more like ours back home but I feel the ODI's could be a contest since England are an improved side in ODI's since they have beaten two very good teams. Mustard doesn't have a excuse now, since he has better condtions for his type of strokeplay and the boundaries in New Zealand are quite short.
Tim Ambrose should still be ahead regardless, he is a tidy wicket keeper and a good batsmen as shown in the County Champiosnhop this season.
I'm worried with Tredwell since he's not quite the wicket taker that Graeme Swann is. I might do a report on my blog to look at the England players and their chances in New Zealand.

 

[Skater]

The squad is in New Zealand, they flew out yesterday. Our first tour game (before the T20s and ODIs) is on the 2nd, which is Friday.

2nd February is Saturday.

 

[0601731]

england need to beat the kiwiws 3-0 to get to the 2nd spot in the icc test rankings.

 

[irottev]

2nd February is Saturday.

Maybe he means it's Friday in England time. Since you guys are something like half a day behind us.

 

[cheese]

First post here. I agree with people saying New Zealand bowling attack is rubbish. It is. Without Bond, and he's probably the only bowler that's up to international standard, the rest simply relies too much on the pitch doing the job for them. They expect to bowl medium pacers and get 20 wickets in a test match? Yeah, right.

Our bowling will get pasted. We should develop youngsters now. There's a speed youngster (19) called Tim Southee and he's all class despite the young age. Get him in there with Martin, O Brien is a journeyman, and if we expect to compete in test matches with O Brien and Oram as our first change, my god, we're going to get killed.

 

[RoboRocks]

Welcome Leslie.
Martin needs to have an opening bowler with a bit more pace and control, which is why Bond will be missed. Oram is a decent bowler but he cannot take wickets often enough.