Daniel Vettori (captain), Andre Adams, Nathan Astle, Ian Butler, Chris Cairns, Peter Fulton, Chris Harris, Hamish Marshall, Craig McMillan, Brendon McCullum, Kyle Mills, Matthew Sinclair, Scott Styris and one more to be named.
Fleming and Oram are being rested for the one-dayers. Which shows how much respect the selectors have for Bangladesh. The "one more to be named" is probably going to be Tuffey, but that is dependent on him passing a fitness test. I am glad to see Skippy and Fulton there, but it does beg the question - who will open? I am guessing that they will open with Sinclair and Astle, and Wisden tells me that Sinclair has scored 530 runs as an opener at 27.89 - which is not too bad. However, Astle and Sinclair are similar players in terms of their instincts and shot-selection. So perhaps the selectors will be tempted to experiment with McCullum or Vettori, or try to squeeze Fulton into the role. None of those options strike me as being particulary big and clever, but I suppose it is only Bangladesh.
Fulton, for those who haven't seen him, looks like an even taller version of Chris Harris (something in the Southern air can't agree with cricketers and hair) and has a very stylish technique - he reminds me of Fleming a little in the lithe tallness of his strokes.
I also see that Sinclair has been called in to cover for Papps in the test matches. What a relief it must be for him to finally drag himself out from beneath McMillan's shadow.
5 comments:
Anyone prepared to tell us their preferred starting 11? Test and ODI.
Test XI (in order)
Richardson, Sinclair, Fleming, Astle, Styris, Oram, McCullum, Franklin, Vettori, Butler, Martin.
ODI XI (in order)
Astle, McCullum, Sinclair, Marshall, Styris, Fulton, Cairns, Harris, Vettori, Tuffey, Butler
McCullum is establishing a bit of a successful history as a domestic opener (last year for Canterbury in their ODIs with Papps) and he is technically a very good batsman.
McCullum to open -- I like that. I don't think I'd like it to extend to the Australia series however.
Not interested in seeing Marshall have a go in the tests?
I think Sinclair is a better test bet than Marshall at this stage. When they're battling over one spot, I'd rather choose a proven test player who is getting runs and used to getting runs, than an unproven player with few runs.
I was just thinking that Bangladesh would be a good opportunity to give Marshall his first exposure to test cricket. Better against Bangladesh than Australia.
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