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#3439895 3-Dec-2025 18:51

Duffy reminds me a bit of how Henry was a really average bowler, but once he tightened his length to consistency he turned a corner, sharp. Not saying Im 100% convinced just yet, but hes had some big performances this summer season so far.

NZ need to win this from the current position, outside the weather, anything less would be a huge statement about this current squad and the players still missing.

thermonuclear

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#3440106 4-Dec-2025 10:59

TeaLeaf:

Duffy reminds me a bit of how Henry was a really average bowler, but once he tightened his length to consistency he turned a corner, sharp. Not saying Im 100% convinced just yet, but hes had some big performances this summer season so far.

NZ need to win this from the current position, outside the weather, anything less would be a huge statement about this current squad and the players still missing.

With no disrespect to Duffy he's probably in the Tickner camp, occasionally in the frame due to injury to the top guys but perhaps not in that category himself. Still, if he can keep bagging five-fers with the limited opportunities he has then he's hard to drop. One thing is for certain, he's better than the last two or three seasons of Southee were.

TeaLeaf

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#3440201 4-Dec-2025 13:44

thermonuclear:

With no disrespect to Duffy he's probably in the Tickner camp

Yeh hes not top shelf yet, I do think hes becoming more consistent in accuracy than Tickner, but Im still not sold just yet, I need to see if he progresses or remains the "nice" fast bowler.

Conway throws away his wicket and Williamson gets one you really cant do much more with. 2 down is now more like 4 down if Blundell cant come out and Smiths side strain is really serious. If NZ lose another couple it could be a loss. Conversely if Latham goes on to a century and Rachin joins him, it should be NZs to lose. Fascinating session of the test.

TeaLeaf

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#3440232 4-Dec-2025 15:49

Tommy gets his first century in a few years at an avg ~24 (Conway hasnt been the only player out of runs), that has to feel good for Latham. Its been a solid innings too. Its now got NZ near the point of asking how many is enough etc. 40deg tomorrow, Im wondering if we would be better off with Conway keeping after Latham kept the last part of the first innings, now been out there a long time, I think WK in the WI 2nd innings is asking a bit much, but we will see how he feels tomorrow I guess. Hes not scored a century vs Ind, SA and Aus, but has produced against Eng.

Rachin is the modern day Nickalls, 2 drops and 3 streaky close ones. He doesnt put away the scoring shots though at near SR100. He can looked streaky one minute, then he just nails one out of nowhere, has provided some glorious boundaries.

Blundell and Smith may not be required, I guess it depends how serious Smith's side strain.

thermonuclear

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#3440239 4-Dec-2025 16:26

Great century from Latham and long overdue after a pretty lean period over the last couple of seasons. Hopefully this signals a return to top form and if he can hold that for the next 12 months for these major upcoming tours it would be very useful. His Hawke's Bay passport is in the mail.

Ravindra has changed the course of this match, absolutely dire to begin with but once he settled down and stopped playing the billion dollar shots to every single ball he has looked really good. He's probably a more natural number five or six with that stroke-making ability, really good to watch and he scores so quickly once he's properly in.

A real find for NZ and so completely different to Williamson. If we could have 2-3 more seasons of them both at the top of their games at test level, NZ would be unstoppable.

Conway did the hard yards then threw it away. Just a nothing T20 slash from a batter that really only plays T20 cricket most of the year. Had the opportunity to play a Plunket Shield match for Wellington prior to this test but turned it down.

Hopefully Young can pile on some runs when he comes in and NZ can get the lead up over 450 to play the West Indies out of the test.

TeaLeaf

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#3440268 4-Dec-2025 17:57

thermonuclear:

Ravindra has changed the course of this match, absolutely dire to begin with but once he settled down and stopped playing the billion dollar shots to every single ball he has looked really good. He's probably a more natural number five or six with that stroke-making ability, really good to watch and he scores so quickly once he's properly in.

A real find for NZ and so completely different to Williamson. If we could have 2-3 more seasons of them both at the top of their games at test level, NZ would be unstoppable.

Yeh Ravindra to me was the next Ross Taylor with the aggressive playing in front vs a Williamson who plays the ball late, Ravindra and Taylor are more aggressive stroke makers. I agree it was nice to see Rachin settle down but not go into his shell, still playing blazing shots, but only when the ball was their to hit. Thats all he has to do, he avoids fielders well, possibly you could ask him to be a little less aerial but if its into vacant space, no issue.

We need some young openers to fill a new age squad around Rachin, GP etc.

Will NZ retire 30mins prior to 6:30pm given the run chase now is looking huge or will the post 500+ and hope 2 days is enough on really good batting conditions to bowl WI out, possibly without Smith.

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TeaLeaf

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#3440389 5-Dec-2025 12:15

Good to see GP back in the side as a sub fielder, no doubt will be in test 2, now just need Mitchell back. Ideally need Mitch Hay in at WK for our next gen Test squad. But also need some quality openers being fed in slowly, hopefully we can get a #3 who can score ~avg 45 as Rachin really looks better at #4, hes too impatient early on for #3 imo.

TeaLeaf

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#3440409 5-Dec-2025 13:17

Racking my head picking our future openers, most of our FC players avg 50+ are over 30yo. ~40 avg for an opener is more realistic though.

Dale Phillips is a little overlooked with avg 38 a number of centuries and 50s. Severin, the welli WK, hes got similar numbers, but again middle order. However Blundell went from a low 30s WK to open for NZ and produced much less in FC. It might be a case of having to fabricate openers in the next few years. Mitchell went from a mid 30s avg #3 for Cant to 50+ for NZ. We just seem to produce players who lift further once playing for NZ.

Avg is one consideration, but Id rather have a John Wright type with mid 30s who will see off the first 20 overs. Possibly Boyle will increase that avg and fit a similar mold of Latham etc.

thermonuclear

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#3440416 5-Dec-2025 13:51

TeaLeaf:

Good to see GP back in the side as a sub fielder, no doubt will be in test 2, now just need Mitchell back. Ideally need Mitch Hay in at WK for our next gen Test squad. But also need some quality openers being fed in slowly, hopefully we can get a #3 who can score ~avg 45 as Rachin really looks better at #4, hes too impatient early on for #3 imo.

Mitchell has been on the field at 1st slip since Blundell went down, so expect him and Phillips to be in the second test XI.

The top six I would select for the next twelve months until the end of the Australian tour is as follows :-

1/. Latham
2/. Young
3/. Williamson
4/. Ravindra
5/. Mitchell
6/. Phillips

The only one that is really in doubt is Young, the other five select themselves on reputation and form. You could swap him for Conway but he just doesn't deliver anymore. If you could be certain he would start scoring the volume of runs he did between 2020-22 then it's a no-brainer he would be in, but that feels like it was thirty years ago now. His run of fairly consistent poor form has gone on too long now and the occasional flash of brilliance is just the exception that proves the general rule - he's been worked out and found out by opposition.

With Williamson and Latham likely to be the first two to retire from the six, you're needing young top order batters. I'd personally take a punt on Robinson, there's something about him to my eyes, but there's no way the NZ selectors will do that as they are risk-adverse. However, when you've got the other five batters of the calibre and experience they have, NZ should be blooding a new guy now so that when Williamson goes the new guy has already been in the side for a couple of seasons and you don't have two of the top three being very green.

Dochart

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#3440476 5-Dec-2025 14:48

We should try Rhys Mariu as opener. He averages 56.05 in first class cricket so far opening the batting.

I think Young has lost in place in the test playing 11. Hasn’t been in form since earlier this year before the Champions Trophy. Should he be selected for the next test over someone like Glenn Phillips in the playing 11 probably not.

TeaLeaf

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#3440485 5-Dec-2025 15:16

thermonuclear:

1/. Latham
2/. Young
3/. Williamson
4/. Ravindra
5/. Mitchell
6/. Phillips

The problem is Young failing at 2, while Conway keeps getting starts which is frustrating. So both have issues of a different nature. I think they will stick with Conway this series to give him the chance to hit his way into form. But Im still open to throwing a young top order batsman like Boyle/Mariu into the cauldron and sink or swim :-).

This is a team batting avg 40-50 to #7 with KJ and Foulkes both better than just tail. But Im not fixed just yet, Conway needs to convert a start and Duffy needs to keep taking wickets. Duffy is slower than Sears, but hes more accurate. We need a batting team like the Watling era that all batted above 40 to #7 that got us to the WTC. But we also need wicket takers.

Latham
Conway
Kane
Rachin
Mitchell
GP
Hay (WK)
KJ
Foulkes
Henry
Duffy

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TeaLeaf

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#3440487 5-Dec-2025 15:17

Dochart:

We should try Rhys Mariu as opener. He averages 56.05 in first class cricket so far opening the batting.

Most definitely. The issue isnt so much the WTC, its the Aus tour which was an embarrassing loss last tour, so our selector who is essentially the coach is wary of change but I think its a fault. Im all for putting one of the young guys in now with 3 series to get a start ahead of the Aus tour. Id rather win that tour than win another WTC.

TeaLeaf

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#3440493 5-Dec-2025 16:44

Ideally for Aus I would have:

Latham
Conway (or a Mariu type, with some form going into Aus)
Kane
Rachin
Mitchell
GP
Hay (WK)
KJ
Henry
Matt Fisher
O'rourke

But how far out is O'rouke, Matt Fisher, Ben Sears? We need the 140-150 bowlers. KJ has slowed down to accommodate his back issues. I imagine O'rouke will drop some speed, Sears I dont think will give up the pace but I thought he would make the ideal fast bowler as he has a thinner frame I thought he may avoid the back plague that has knocked out our 140kph+ bowlers.

thermonuclear

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#3440506 5-Dec-2025 17:21

What the hell is going on with pace bowling in NZ?

Someone needs to go to NZC HQ, find the handbook labelled "Management Of Pace Bowling Workloads & Fitness Programs" and throw it in the waste-paper basket.

Dochart

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#3440531 5-Dec-2025 20:27

thermonuclear:

What the hell is going on with pace bowling in NZ?

Someone needs to go to NZC HQ, find the handbook labelled "Management Of Pace Bowling Workloads & Fitness Programs" and throw it in the waste-paper basket.

Henry is also injured as well. At this rate we might even lose this test match against West Indies if we can’t get the current two batters out tomorrow.

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