New Zealand Tour of England - 2021

[Ed Smith]

Gents, let's settle down before someone ends up crying in the corner

 

[Dutch]

*curls up, pulls jumper over head, sucks thumb and rocks backwards and forward*

 

[Ed Smith]

*curls up, pulls jumper over head, sucks thumb and rocks backwards and forward*

Yup. Been a while since I felt this pessimistic about the side like

 

[wasteyouryouth]

This will make everyone feel better or worse

 

[blockerdave]

This will make everyone feel better or worse

Sobering that. As was the line in the Being Outside Cricket write up of the test that Joe Root might be the last English batsman to average >40 in a generation.

 

[wasteyouryouth]

Sobering that. As was the line in the Being Outside Cricket write up of the test that Joe Root might be the last English batsman to average >40 in a generation.

It's interesting as Simon Doull has been talking about how New Zealand made pitches more batting friendly in the last ten years. You see they have plenty of batsman averaging 40+ and a bowling attack, their strongest ever, that has had to hone skills in less friendly conditions and with a ball that doesn't offer the same assistance.

So, when England line up a couple of wickets that are batter friendly the NZ batsmen cope better, even against the Dukes ball, and their bowlers are just powered up by the Dukes ball and more effective.

I wonder if the instruction for better batting surfaces might be reversed to more bowler/home team friendly ones for the India series, as seemed to be the case after the Chennai test.

 

[Bevab]

It's interesting as Simon Doull has been talking about how New Zealand made pitches more batting friendly in the last ten years. You see they have plenty of batsman averaging 40+ and a bowling attack, their strongest ever, that has had to hone skills in less friendly conditions and with a ball that doesn't offer the same assistance.

So, when England line up a couple of wickets that are batter friendly the NZ batsmen cope better, even against the Dukes ball, and their bowlers are just powered up by the Dukes ball and more effective.

I wonder if the instruction for better batting surfaces might be reversed to more bowler/home team friendly ones for the India series, as seemed to be the case after the Chennai test.

The flattening of NZ pitches has been one of the best moves of NZ cricket in recent times. Their pacers have become a lot more dangerous due to the fact that they have to earn their wickets now.