Karl thinks ... there are a couple of positives from the Aussie series

I'm taking a couple of positives from the recently concluded series against Australia (desperately trying to look for positives). There's also a couple of negatives.

Firstly, the negatives.
I'm worried about how we overwork one or two key players. Daniel Vettori couldn't walk the morning of the first test, and yet shouldered a huge burden throughout the series. Nathan Astle has recently come back from injury - a message sent out when he was looking at a comeback was that to protect his body he would be taking a minimal bowling workload in future. The third test showed that he is considered a third seamer and had to shoulder a heavy workload accordingly. Two of our few world class players are being overworked and I think there's a large risk they'll be back on the sidelines with Jacob Oram and Scott Styris.
From the one-day series - there were nothing but negatives. Five matches, seventeen players used. To my mind only Hamish Marshall redeemed himself, although Craig McMillan started to look good and played more maturely than he has for a while.

The positives.
Going into the test series with Sri Lanka, there is the post-Australia effect, documented recently on CricInfo.

In the tests, my main positives were the play of Daniel Vettori, Hamish Marshall, Nathan Astle and, to a lesser extent, James Franklin.
Daniel Vettori is just pure class. While he didn't take many wickets, he still genuinely troubled the Australian batsman and showed he's a handy batsman. His back is of real concern, especially with his admission he couldn't walk the morning of the first test - see http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?ObjectID=10115682
Hamish Marshall showed he's a good back-foot player with great timing.
Nathan Astle batted himself back into some good form and was probably the most consistent of the batsman. He also bowled well in the third test - I just hope it doesn't impact on him physically.
James Franklin matured a lot in the series. After the mauling he received over in Australia pre-Christmas, he could've been expected to go to pieces. Instead, he ends the series with his best figures yet, with a useful 6 wicket bag and starting to trouble the batsman.