New Zealand tour of Sri Lanka, 2009

Simple answer, yes. He's been struggling for awhile now.


He has all the potential in the world to be a good batsmen, but he hasn't worked hard enough to become a better player. I've almost given up hope of him ever being a good enough batsmen to average 40 for us, something I would of banked on happening when he made his debut in 2004. He doesn't have the defensive technique to survive at the test level, yes he might hit the odd 50-80 score but he's never going to perform when the pressure is on.

I don't think McCullum can improve much more as a batsman, however we can put him in a better situation, where he doesn't have to try and correct or stabilise a bad situation, by putting him at the top of the order, like you said allowing McCullum to plays his natural game, he'll do what he has done a lot in ODI's and hurt bowlers rhythms & lines, which will allow the rest of the top order to quietly get themselves settled in while McCullum sets off some fireworks on the opposition.
 
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New Zealand are getting rolled. I really feel for your batting line up.


Yes its a real shame as there is so much potential. Lets not forget though, Sri Lanka are very hard to beatt, especially on home soil...but this, like the last test, is very convincing for Sri Lanka and demoralising for the Kiwi's!:(
 
Is Van Wyk eligible for New Zealand yet? If McCullum stays in this bad form I wouldn't mind seeing him have a go in the international field.
 
I don't think McCullum can improve much more as a batsman, however we can put him in a better situation, where he doesn't have to try and correct or stabilise a bad situation, by putting him at the top of the order, like you said allowing McCullum to plays his natural game, he'll do what he has done a lot in ODI's and hurt bowlers rhythms & lines, which will allow the rest of the top order to quietly get themselves settled in while McCullum sets off some fireworks on the opposition.

Toatally agree. We all remember the form he had from around Jan 2008 till July/August that year, he smashed Englad to all parts in the ODI's and he did the same in the test matches, in NZ and over in England. I remember the test in Hamilton last year against England (We won) and McCullum came out at seven and made a run a ball 50. He played the same way he played in the ODI's 1-2 weeks earlier and looked really good. He did the same thing at Lord's when he made that run a ball 97 too. Vettori and Moles just have to give him a free license, no matter what the situation is just to attack.

Howsie added 10 Minutes and 43 Seconds later...

Yes its a real shame as there is so much potential. Lets not forget though, Sri Lanka are very hard to beatt, especially on home soil...but this, like the last test, is very convincing for Sri Lanka and demoralising for the Kiwi's!:(

Excatly. I don't think too many New Zealand fans actually expected us to win a test over here, heck even drawing one game looked unlikely. I've just been really disappointed with how the senior players have performed, mainly Oram and McCullum. Tbh I didn't really expect much out of Oram, but McCullum's been very scratchy with the bat. Can't fault his keeping though, it's been right up there with Prasanna Jayawardene's.

The batting has been rather disappointing also. I really didn't expect much again but we've had way too many players get in and then just get out. Taylor, Guptill, and Ryder have all been guilty of this, Guptill has really frustrated me with this habbit.

Still I think the younger players will learn a lot from this and hopefully this helps with there development over the next 1-2 years, they've seen enough world class batting over the last two weeks so they should know what level to strife for.
 
NZ do have to look beyond just chopping and changing, I very much doubt there are another 3 or 4 rough gems in their state game that will find their feat in test cricket easily.

If changing the side is intended to create pressure to perform then it's an ok ploy, but that has to be carefully managed, dropping potentially good players for giving away their wicket or being silly, to encourage them to improve concentration and determination and then rewarding good efforts in the state game. but it's counter-productive to drop someone like McIntosh anytime soon because there is no one any better than him and any change would be just done in blind hope.
 
I don't suppose many did expect to win a test, but at least put up a decent fight. Having lived in Wellington now for the past 4 years its really noticeable who everyone really ridicules the cricket team. The rugby team seem to be very well suported whatever happens on the pitch. Of course, actions on the pitch dictate the punters views but have never really seen such abject non-appreciation and belief of a sporting team. It must be so hard for the players going out there with everyone expecting them to be no good. Who are the exciting younger players on the fringe at the moment?
 
New Zealand have always been not quite there if you know what I mean.. They just hover around the middle of the rankings... Its dissapointing that they can't push up one more level to challenge the teams like Australia/South Africa/India etc.
 
NZ do have to look beyond just chopping and changing, I very much doubt there are another 3 or 4 rough gems in their state game that will find their feat in test cricket easily.

If changing the side is intended to create pressure to perform then it's an ok ploy, but that has to be carefully managed, dropping potentially good players for giving away their wicket or being silly, to encourage them to improve concentration and determination and then rewarding good efforts in the state game. but it's counter-productive to drop someone like McIntosh anytime soon because there is no one any better than him and any change would be just done in blind hope.

We have better batsmen going around to replace McIntosh. Infact he's probably not any better then the average openers we've got going around in domestic cricket, he just plays 1-2 good knocks a season. His home ground (Eden Park II) is a flat out road, he'd make a fair few runs on that track which boosts his average.

The problem for NZ is that our best batsmen (Ryder, Taylor) are only young and it doesn't help that they're basically our go to batsmen at there age. Batsmen that could come into the team within the next year are:

Neil Broom 26
BJ Watling 24
Kane Williamson 18

And our older players, Fulton, Sinclair, Marshall have shown in the past that they're not upto international standard.

Howsie added 4 Minutes and 38 Seconds later...

I don't suppose many did expect to win a test, but at least put up a decent fight. Having lived in Wellington now for the past 4 years its really noticeable who everyone really ridicules the cricket team. The rugby team seem to be very well suported whatever happens on the pitch. Of course, actions on the pitch dictate the punters views but have never really seen such abject non-appreciation and belief of a sporting team. It must be so hard for the players going out there with everyone expecting them to be no good. Who are the exciting younger players on the fringe at the moment?

Kane Williamson. He just turned 19 last week but he's easily the best batsmen to come into NZ domestic cricket in 10-15 years. Averaged 54 in FC cricket last season and 45 in One Day cricket.

Neil Broom's up there too.
 
Is Hamish Marshall still around?

What a crab he was... Useless.
 
Lets hope at least in ODI's NZ comes up with decent performance,they now really need to look at their mistakes...
 
We have better batsmen going around to replace McIntosh. Infact he's probably not any better then the average openers we've got going around in domestic cricket, he just plays 1-2 good knocks a season. His home ground (Eden Park II) is a flat out road, he'd make a fair few runs on that track which boosts his average.

The problem for NZ is that our best batsmen (Ryder, Taylor) are only young and it doesn't help that they're basically our go to batsmen at there age. Batsmen that could come into the team within the next year are:

Neil Broom 26
BJ Watling 24
Kane Williamson 18

And our older players, Fulton, Sinclair, Marshall have shown in the past that they're not upto international standard.

Howsie added 4 Minutes and 38 Seconds later...



Kane Williamson. He just turned 19 last week but he's easily the best batsmen to come into NZ domestic cricket in 10-15 years. Averaged 54 in FC cricket last season and 45 in One Day cricket.

Neil Broom's up there too.


Kane Williamson, now there is a name to watch out for the coming years!
 
New Zealand have always been not quite there if you know what I mean.. They just hover around the middle of the rankings... Its dissapointing that they can't push up one more level to challenge the teams like Australia/South Africa/India etc.

Yea I know what you mean :(

If we could just find two openers that averaged even 40 I reckon we'd go a lot better. A strike bowler would be nice also. We just need this young group of talent thats coming through (It's the best talent for a good 10-15 years) to come good at around the same time.

Howsie added 2 Minutes and 51 Seconds later...

Is Hamish Marshall still around?

What a crab he was... Useless.

Nah he left for county cricket a couple of years ago. I think he just got sick of the selectors mucking him around. I wouldn't say he was useless though. I still remember that 160 he made against Australia with Warne and McGrath in the attack. Too bad our selectors thought he'd make a good opener :sarcasm
 

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