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Yeah, the strength in depth is crazy atm. Also the development and coaching the young guys have is state of the art.

Should Anderson, Finn or Broad get injured we can add Bresnan, Woakes, Harris and have little worries in them stepping up. Same on the batting side of things, theres a long list of players that you could add to our team. Keeping too, Prior has 2 Somerset lads wanting his spot amongst others. Basically, the Aussie are in for (another) smashing this summer. Bring it! :lol:
 
SelimNiai said:
Yeah, the strength in depth is crazy atm. Also the development and coaching the young guys have is state of the art.

Should Anderson, Finn or Broad get injured we can add Bresnan, Woakes, Harris and have little worries in them stepping up. Same on the batting side of things, theres a long list of players that you could add to our team. Keeping too, Prior has 2 Somerset lads wanting his spot amongst others. Basically, the Aussie are in for (another) smashing this summer. Bring it! :lol:
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I fear (as a pseudo-Aussie supporter now) that may be the case. Australia are very much in a re-building phase at the moment with the recent retirement of the likes of Ponting and Hussey. The batting lineup is a particular concern, with really only Michael Clarke and established test player (Cowan is ok, Warner is just starting to establish himself, Hughes is making his 3rd or 4th comeback to test cricket in 2 years, Watson will injury himself running out onto the field....). The pace bowling lineup however has a lot of promise, and like England they have plenty of depth (and need it too given the injuries they continue to suffer). Between Pattinson, Cummins, Starc, Johnson, Bird, Siddle et. al. they have a good collection of quality pace bowlers (and some good variety), though they do lack a quality spinner (Lyon is ok, but isn't going to run through a side).

England may well be demoralized after having played 5 tests versus New Zealand before the Ashes, which may give the Aussies some hope ;)
 
Another pretty convincing win for England to clinch the ODI series yesterday. McCullum was again sublime with the bat, but the rest of the NZ batsmen didn't seem to know which end of the bat to hold. The English bowler bowled well as a unit, with Finn again really impressive.

Can't say I'm overly optimistic about our prospects in the test series. We have a pretty good fast bowling lineup (Boult, Bracewell, and Southee), and a solid top-middle order (Williamson, Taylor, McCullum etc), but we lack a quality spinner, and our opening batsmen look like they will be very average. Left arm spinner Bruce Martin looks set to make his test debut, but I don't think he will pose much threat at all. He doesn't do much with the ball, and is more of a containing bowler (to be fair though he won't be any worse than Patel). I reckon we would be much better off going in with 4 front line pace bowlers (with Gillespie/Wagner as the forth paceman) and leave the spinning duties to Williamson (who will probably pose more threat than Martin in any case!). I looks like veteran Peter Fulton will be one of the openers - he has been in great form this season, but has been tried (and failed) numerous times at test level already. He will be paired with either Tom Latham or Hamish Rutherford - both a promising young players, but aren't near ready for test cricket in my opinion.....

Meanwhile the Aussie vs India test is evenly poised with India 193/3 chasing Australias 380. Tendulker is looking in good form on 79 not out, while Pattinson has impressed with the ball so far for Australia (bowling all three Indian batsmen to fall thus far).

Meanwhile in South Africa..... Who is Kyle Abbott? Taking 7-29 on test debut vs Pakistan is pretty damn impressive!
 
Same, I can't see us being troubled much in the Test Series. One of the strengths we have is consistency in selection, players hardly ever get injured and our "risks" of playing Root and Compton in India never really materialised so there's confidence in selecting them.

Abbot played breifly for Somerset 2nds. I just found this out, seems we missed out a bit there :lol:
 
First Test starts in a bit. Only change for England is Swann out and Panesar in. Not hugely disappointed at that, Swann has been a bit off last few games and Monty P is a more than capable swap. Ont issue I have is the hate on Nick Compton and certain media "experts" questioning his place. He has averaged 34 in his first 3 tests away in India. I really can't see the bad thing in that and yet people are questioning if he should still play. That may be Somerset bias but I like to think I know my cricket enough to be beyond that.

Anyhoo, can't see many issues incoming from the Black Caps, a decent yet unremarkable team.
 
We forget that he is the wrong side of 30 as he was a late bloomer to the Test Arena. Is a worry considering our competent Test spinning back up is Monty Panesar and thats it
 
SelimNiai said:
We forget that he is the wrong side of 30 as he was a late bloomer to the Test Arena. Is a worry considering our competent Test spinning back up is Monty Panesar and thats it
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Adil Rashid was highly thought of at one stage, hopefully he can have a resurgence at some point.

I don't want to see the bald snowy owl Tredwell called up though, I don't think he has the quality to be a Test spinner.
 
Rashid has potential but like all English leggies he has more off days than he does on days. Also the Headingly track isn't very conducive to leg spin. Agree with Treadwell, Patel can't actaully spin it and I can't think of any other pretenders at the moment
 
Hmmm...looks like it is raining in Dunedin, so we are going to have a late start. This is somewhat ironic, as I understand that the Otago region has had one of the driest summers on record, and they have been desperate for rain over the last month or so...

You would have to think that England should win this match pretty comfortably (once it finally get underway..). I'm sure the Blackcaps will take some confidence from the recent NZ XI victory over England in Queenstown though, with the test players involved (Rutherford, Watling, Brownlie and Wagner) all having strong games. It is unfortunate that Doug Bracewell is out for NZ, as he has started to look like he is getting back into form - indeed if he was fit I would have liked to have seen a 4 seamer attack.

Hopefully a bit of rain on the wicket will give it a bit of life for the NZ bowlers :)
 
TRF_Darwin said:
Hmmm...looks like it is raining in Dunedin, so we are going to have a late start. This is somewhat ironic, as I understand that the Otago region has had one of the driest summers on record, and they have been desperate for rain over the last month or so...

You would have to think that England should win this match pretty comfortably (once it finally get underway..). I'm sure the Blackcaps will take some confidence from the recent NZ XI victory over England in Queenstown though, with the test players involved (Rutherford, Watling, Brownlie and Wagner) all having strong games. It is unfortunate that Doug Bracewell is out for NZ, as he has started to look like he is getting back into form - indeed if he was fit I would have liked to have seen a 4 seamer attack.

Hopefully a bit of rain on the wicket will give it a bit of life for the NZ bowlers :)
Click to expand...

Well one of the old jokes was for drought affected areas to simply arrange a Test series against England and the monsoons will arrive. Dunedin looking like Dundee-din at the moment.

What did happen with Bracewell. I heard he got injured while being "liberally refreshed" a ta party
 
SelimNiai said:
Well one of the old jokes was for drought affected areas to simply arrange a Test series against England and the monsoons will arrive. Dunedin looking like Dundee-din at the moment.

What did happen with Bracewell. I heard he got injured while being "liberally refreshed" a ta party
Click to expand...

The "official" story (put out by NZ cricket) is he cut his foot when cleaning up some glass the morning after a party. Doug Bracewell has since apologized to NZ cricket for this "incident". You have to ask yourself this: if the incident was as innocent as NZ cricket are claiming, why did Bracewell need to apologise, and have to be "reminded of his obligations and responsibilities as a NZC contracted player"? This incident reflects badly on both Bracewell and NZ cricket, who instead of simply telling the truth tried to cover it up (rather poorly).

Bracewell has a bit of a history of alcohol related issues. He and Jesse Ryder were involved in an incident with a patron at a bar when they were both meant to be recovering from injury. Bracewell also missed selection in the under 19 squad a few years ago due to a few alcohol related issues. I'm not suggesting he is Zac Guildford or anything, but there certainly seems to be a pattern evolving here....

EDIT: Just seen it mentioned on Cricinfo that Swann is out for the whole series, with Tredwell called into the squad as a replacement.
 
Swann off to America for elbow surgery.

Tredwell called in.
 
All the more reason we have to hope that Monty stays injury free and stays in form.
 
It could be worse. Bruce Martin could be your test spinner.
 
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I think part of the reason Bracewell has had to apologize is because his neighbors have complained to NZ cricket about parties and noise coming from his house. Not just the foot injury.
 
As a random aside, Central Districts are currently 346/1 in a 50 over domestic match vs Northern Districts...and there are still 10 overs to go! Jamie How is currently 214 not out. There are going to be some serious records broken in this match....
 
Test Match attempt 2:

Bad start, England lose Compton early, giving people more excuses to drop him. Pitch is lively, ball moving in the air and off the surface. A pitch I'd have loved to have bowled on myself
 

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