Last week a workmate posed me a challenge: to pick New Zealand Cricket’s all-time worst XI. At first I thought this an impossible task. I mean, how could you possibly pinpoint the Black Cap’s least reliable batsman EVER? And even if you managed to sift through all the Rutherfords and the Sinclairs, how to approach the seemingly endless junkyard of discarded seamers; the Su’as, the Drums, the Masons, the Kuggeleijns. Then what of the mediocre mediums? The terrible twirlers? The abysmal openers? Or the thoroughly average all-rounders? Being faced with such an extensive pool of wasted potential and forcing oneself to whittle it down to just eleven is an uphill battle, to say the least.
Last week’s 4-0 drubbing by Bangladesh has surely gone some way to settling the issue. You want to know our worst side ever? Just take a look at the team sheet for the fifth one dayer.
A bit of an exaggeration perhaps but, all jokes aside, New Zealand were woeful in this series.
As a Black Caps supporter you get used to the idea of humility and good sportsmanship. Very rarely, however, am I embarrassed – nay, ashamed – by their efforts. Given that these are the eleven best players in New Zealand at this point in time (and I would mostly agree with the selectors that they are), you have to ask yourself, what went wrong?
Much of the blame must go to the top order batsmen. We failed on three occasions to chase small-ish totals against (and I mean no disrespect to the Bangladeshis) fairly benign bowling. Narrowing it down a little further, I think that Brendon McCullum in particular needs to do some serious soul-searching. On all but one occasion (when he was out caught behind off his fourth ball), he fell looking to play super-aggressively, when all that was needed was patience and someone to rotate the strike. As our senior-most batsmen, he needs to take more responsibility for New Zealand’s fortunes with the bat and play according to the situation at hand. Also, he needs to make a conscious effort to eliminate these brain explosions he seems to experience at the crease. His dismissal in the first game against Bangladesh offers a fairly vivid insight into his mindset. He was well-set, having reached his fifty off 35 balls, when he chose to shimmy down the track to Shakib Al Hasan (far and away their best bowler), was beaten in the flight and ended up with his off stump flattened. This left the Black Caps in serious trouble and we eventually came up short in our chase by 28 runs. He needs to realize that there is a time for aggression and a time to play sensibly. It concerns me a little that he wants to play higher up the order in tests, now that he has relinquished the keeping duties. Hopefully, he can temper his aggression and play some meaningful innings in test cricket in the near future.
The other main contributor to our dismal showing is the fact that two of our key batsmen have recently recovered from injuries and been propelled straight back into the national side. Jesse Ryder and Grant Elliot, two of our top performers of 2009, have been out injured for some time and were short on match time coming into this series. It’s fair to say that this showed in their performances against Bangladesh.
Three bright points came out of our ill-fated expedition to Dhaka. The most obvious of which was Kane Williamson’s maiden international hundred in the fourth ODI. After his first three outings ended in failures, it was reassuring to see him play with the poise and level-headedness that has marked him out as a future star for several years now. Perhaps more remarkably though is that he made his runs while the Black Caps’ backs were firmly up against the wall and with his more experienced team mates falling like ten pins at the other end. I have to say I’m pleased to see him in the squad for the test series in India, and I certainly hope he makes his five-day debut at some point during the tour. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve day-dreamed of a New Zealand middle-order comprised of Taylor (3 – he is our best and most reliable batsman and should rightly be coming in first drop), Ryder (4), and Williamson (5) steering our test team to momentous victories. Based on potential I think these three could function as a batting triumvirate in the Indian mould of Dravid, Tendulkar and Laxman – perhaps I am overly optimistic.
The other big plus was the emergence of Hamish Bennett, the left-arm fast bowler from Canterbury. I was reasonably impressed with his showing in his first couple of games. He seems as though he could be genuinely quick, though in my very humble opinion, his action needs some attention. The exciting thing is that, despite his rawness, there is something of Shane Bond about him, and if he could match even half of Bond’s success it would bode very well for the future of New Zealand cricket.
On a slightly smug I-told-you-so note, it was great to see BJ Watling operating as McCullum’s understudy with the gloves. A couple of months ago I wrote a piece (29.08.10 - He's a keeper..) where I said that I hoped the New Zealand selectors would use Watling as a potential keeping option over the likes of Gareth Hopkins. It is nice to see that I am at least on a similar wavelength to the powers that be.
Despite the hiding we received in Bangladesh, I remain optimistic about the Indian tour, if only to see some key individuals perform. I think New Zealand cricket is at an interesting juncture right now and I look forward to seeing how they shape up in the near future.
