The problem is we're effectively playing a man down. He's got six single figure scores in his last six matches, and only one half century. If he keeps on this form, then we're going to have to throw someone in at the deep end against India. This was the series to try someone else out. I think if Ben McKinney had finished the season well then he may have been given a shot but the rest of the realistic options have been tried (Hameed, Jennings, Lees, Burns all scored 900+ last season) and none of them are particularly quick scorers, which is what McCullum wants. Anything's got to be better than a walking wicket though.
Couple of stats from the game: Joe Root is now the all time leading run scorer in the 4th innings of Tests Harry Brook has more centuries away from home than David Warner
What's interesting about the last year or so is how Brydon Carse and Gus Atkinson have taken to Test cricket, despite pretty mediocre first class records. Their bowling style is much better suited to Test level, as opposed to county championship where medium-fast bowlers thrive. Glenn Chappell, Chris Rushworth, Sam Cook, Jamie Porter, Luke Fletcher - all bowlers who top out at the very low 80s, but take wickets for fun. They'd be eaten alive at test level. The shifting of the majority of championship matches to early and late in the season is only going to encourage this sort of bowling and make it harder to identify future talent. It's a similar position as opening bats - being able to see off lower pace, but accurate bowlers is not ideal preparation for the next level. Are we going to be relying more on pathways through the U19s and the Lions squads, and getting players included in squads who don't look impressive on paper like Jacob Bethell?
This seems like the sort of thing up your street Fireburn, but does anyone know why we haven’t toured South Africa for nearly five years? Miss playing them, stunning backdrop to watch cricket in and I always feel it’s a very good test, with SA being a fiercely proud sporting nation and usually providing a fierce pace attack. Getting a bit bored of always playing New Zealand. For all the talk around the big three always playing one another, it seems like NZ are the team we’ve faced most in the last five years. This is the fourth calendar year in a row we’ve played a test series against them. It’s also another reason I struggle to take the WTC seriously.
We're next due over there December 2026. By that point it will have been seven years since the last test series there. Wonder if some series got pushed back due to Covid?
Must have been one originally due 2023/2024. Australia haven’t been there for Tests since Winter 2018. India have been there twice in that time and going again Next Christmas.
It's only 3 tests as well next time, with 3 ODIs and 3 T20s. They've had poor crowds for test matches for a while now. I don't think the venues have been confirmed, but I'd expect England fans to outnumber the hosts, especially at Cape Town.
One will be almost certainly be Centurion starting on Boxing Day and in the recent couple of years the Cape Town test has started 3rd January so that might happen again.
Yeah I think that's usually the best attended ground by SA fans, and I doubt there won't be one in Cape Town due to the potential away following. Either Kingsmead or The Wanderers for the last match.
South Arica tests are also good to follow because them and the West Indies are the only away tests that don’t have play during sleeping hours.
And yet the BBC preview an hour ago said Crawley’s place is not in trouble because it is just a New Zealand issue for him.
He can't deal with ball movement. Anything straight, and he'll pummel it. A bit of shape or seam, and he's in trouble.
Stephan Shemilt, the BBC chief reporter, described it as "a bonkers innings". Bumrah's going to destroy him in the summer.
Yeah, and that's why them sticking with him is just madness. Getting one big score every 20+ innings is not worth all the failures.
He's had 37 single figure scores in 94 innings, and 14 more scores under 20. That's simply not good enough.
As a comparison, Andrew Strauss had 42 single figure scores in 178 innings, and he had some periods where he really struggled.