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NZ vs England Preview Episode
21 Plays2 months ago
On this episode, host Adam Bell and cricket journalist Rahul Patil discuss the upcoming test series between New Zealand and England.
They discuss the makeup of both squads and the key players that could decide the result of the series.
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Transcript
Introduction to Series
00:00:00
Speaker
lord
00:00:04
Speaker
Welcome to the Cricketeers, another episode talking about the great game of cricket. On this episode we will be previewing the upcoming tea series between New Zealand and England. And with me to discuss this exciting series is Raul Patel.
00:00:24
Speaker
Thanks for joining this episode of The Crooked Tears Rule. It's ah great to have you on the show, and it's been a long time coming. um So thanks for joining us. Thanks, Adam. And yeah, always follow your tweets on X. And they're very informative. So always wanted to kind of share, I won't say so clean space, but airspace with you. And yeah, it's so good to be on the show, finally.
00:00:49
Speaker
thanks thanks for that Thanks for the compliments regarding some of the tweets, some of them are rubbish, some of them are good, but hopefully you've seen my good ones.
Importance of New Zealand vs England
00:00:58
Speaker
So in like in a couple of days time, New Zealand plays England in the first test at Haggly Oval. I mean, what ah an exciting series and prospect. I mean, just give us your thoughts on the series. um What are you looking forward to? um Who do you think some of the key players are going to be? um Just your overall thoughts. Obviously, New Zealand
00:01:22
Speaker
beat India and India 3-0. And I know you've got um you' fought in both New Zealand and Indian camps, so it would have been an interesting series for you. And then you've got England coming off the 2-1 loss to Pakistan after dominating the first test and then getting dusted in the last two tests. So it's it's a really interesting series um coming up. Yeah, I was just going to think how long it would take you to bring up India's loss to New Zealand 3-0 at home. But not um look,
00:01:52
Speaker
ah I think that victory ah of New Zealand, like nobody ever could have predicted that or nobody could have ever given them a chance. So it came out of the blue, caught everyone off guard. And I think what it's done though, is it's set this whole world test championship alight. This series now actually has something riding on it because if things had gone the way everyone predicted they would in India,
00:02:18
Speaker
then this series wouldn't have garnered the kind of interest that it it is currently garnering because now New Zealand have a realistic chance of actually making it to the World Test Championship final. So there's something riding on this. um I guess another interesting aspect for me from this series is the fact that I can't remember the last time an English team came to New Zealand shows and the squad that they picked didn't have a certain Jimmy Anderson or a Stuart Broad in it. So, you know, two legends of the game have said ah their final goodbyes. And yeah, they're no longer going to be part of a playing 11 in a test match in New Zealand, which is going to be quite different. You know, you associate England with those two guys. So yeah, that's quite interesting for me to watch out
New Zealand's Cricket Transition
00:03:11
Speaker
for. And I just think that, um you know, New Zealand crickets
00:03:16
Speaker
in a transition period kind of ah because of the fact that we've just had a change in captaincy before the India series. You know, Tom Latham's absolutely having a honeymoon with the captaincy in his first three days. um So it'll be interesting to see because the pressures of playing at home and the pressures when he went to India, there were no expectations. But now suddenly there are expectations on this team and at home um playing against England.
00:03:45
Speaker
with the side that we have and with the side they have, um I think the public would want to see victories and are expecting this team to do well. So how the team performs on the weight, on the back of weight of expectations on them is going to be quite interesting for me. I do have one quick question for you though.
00:04:04
Speaker
um What do you make of this whole announcing that playing 11 two days before the start of
England's Early XI Announcement
00:04:10
Speaker
a test match though? Where do you stand on that? I i find it odd um and I still haven't come to grips with it. Surely you would want to actually have a look at the pitch first before making that decision. And and I don't see why you have to. What the advantage is of naming your team a few days before the match. Wouldn't it be better to kind of keep the opposition guessing a little bit?
00:04:34
Speaker
Absolutely, I mean back in the day I can totally understand if you're playing at home and if you've got a debutant and his family wants to be there for his or her debut.
00:04:44
Speaker
then you would give them a bit of notice so I can understand if you're at home. But when you're playing away, a million miles away from home, it's not like his family, whoever is making a debut is going to fly from the UK just to see him make his or her debut. so It makes absolutely no sense. It's just one of these quirky things ah that english cricket does or have started doing under this new regime um amongst all the other quirky things that they started doing this is just another one of those and they're stretching it now because now previously it used to be this to announce the 11 before like 24 hours before the game started now they started doing it 48 hours i just wonder if they'll start announcing it a week a week before the game starts you know so yeah i wonder what's going on there
00:05:35
Speaker
Well, I got a ah couple of things from what you previously would you said.
Subplots and Coaching Style
00:05:40
Speaker
um You're talking about now the series has something riding on it. and i And I feel exactly the same way. like I think this would have been an exciting series if New Zealand had lost in India and you know England were kind of still on the rise. I think it still would have been an interesting series. But I think now it's got so many different subplots. It's got now that New Zealand are coming off that incredible historic series one and now have a ah chance to make the World Test Championship.
00:06:05
Speaker
And then on the flip side of it, you've got an English side that are coming here with with a few losses under the belt under the initial bears bull, or at the start of bears bull, they'd beaten Pakistan and and they were kind of on a roll when they when they got here. So I think the English team is in a different place. They've also got a different bowling attack now without Jimmy Anderson and Broad, and even Ollie Robinson, who had a really good series ah last time the two teams met in New Zealand. And he's actually been um a prolific work take against New Zealand in ah and a short career.
00:06:41
Speaker
So I think there's so many different sub-lots there. You add in the fact that it's Brenda McCollum and Ben Stokes coming coming back home or to the place where they're born and in Ben Stokes' case. So I think there's so many different sub-lots of this tour that it's for me it's absolutely fascinating. And then you add in the Jacob Bethel selection which is really a baseball gamble. It's a quintessential Brenda McCollum selection.
00:07:08
Speaker
and I feel as a if a lot of his selections come from his own selection for the Black Caps. um you know He was selected at 19, basically based on he um his ah za playing career at youth level, where he was like this explosive batter. And I feel like he goes down that road of trying to select people in his own image. I'm not sure what your thoughts about that are.
Selection Debate: Bashir vs Leach
00:07:36
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I had a look at the 11 that they announced and I can't get my head around how Shoaib Bashir is a better spinner than Jack Leach. Where did that transition happen? What has Shoaib Bashir done to prove that he's a better spinner?
00:07:55
Speaker
than Jack Leach's. We all saw Jack Leach come to New Zealand the last time around. I was at the basin for all five days of that test. um And I saw him bowl a marathon spell of about 40 or 45. I was at the basin and pick up a five for there. and So I've seen Shahab Bashir and I know they rate him highly and I've seen him play in India. And um yes, initially for the first couple of games that he did play because he was new and and know Nobody had seen him before. There was that bit of unknown quantity to him. Once the Indians had a measure of him, he was just another spinner. And I haven't seen what they see in him and the way they talk him up. So yeah, you're right. and um You get a lot of these selections which come out of the blue, which don't make sense. But I almost think that it's become a fashion or a fad now.
00:08:51
Speaker
to pick players out of the blue because, oh, we see something in him. Oh, he's got something in him which we think will be big. He hasn't proven it in first-class cricket yet. He hasn't done it at any level of cricket yet, but we feel he's got something in him to produce it at the test level. Well, that's all well and good. How does that make someone else feel who's actually going through the grind of first-class cricket and delivering over there?
00:09:20
Speaker
and ah So yeah, good luck to them. ah Thankfully, they're not the team that I support.
Team Selection Strategies
00:09:28
Speaker
Because if they were, that would be a really frustrating team to support.
00:09:32
Speaker
It's funny because I tweeted something out on Sunday and i and the tweet was, you know, Australia are now putting the Lord of Batsmen or putting the Lord of Batsmen to open the batting. England selecting guys are with very little first-class experience and then you've got New Zealand who, apart from probably Willow Rourke,
00:09:53
Speaker
um ah selecting guys who've got first-class experience and who are experienced themselves and it's just quite a funny contrast between the teams and I mean New Zealand over the last few seasons have been actually very consistent ah across all formats and I've always wondered maybe the success has just down to stability and actually selecting guys who know their game and and have got experience in different formats where it's great to be go down the England road route where you are making these gambles but not every not every young player is a prodigy um and some are obviously going to kick on and some aren't. but
00:10:33
Speaker
and you know it's a huge gamble to just to pick guys with little experience and then you think about some of the guys that are in their first class system that aren't getting a run. I mean Sam Haynes is one who didn't have a great first class season this this year but last year in previous seasons he's been prolific and then you've got Ollie Robinson.
00:10:52
Speaker
ah the keeper Ollie Robinson and a few others who have put up great numbers and because they don't fit a certain basketball style, they don't make the team. Whereas Bethel has even got a first-class 100 yet and averages 25, is selected as a number three in potentially green conditions. it's um It doesn't make sense but I mean Brendan McCollum obviously um has a style of cricket that he wants to play and backs his players and and he believes he can get the best out of them.
00:11:22
Speaker
Yeah, I totally agree. And I wrote a piece the other day on the whole Indian kind of win over Australia. And one of the things I mentioned in that is I actually used an analogy to describe the difference between white ball cricket and red ball cricket because ah the little that I've seen of Bethel in white ball cricket is very impressive.
00:11:43
Speaker
But there's a massive difference between playing white ball cricket um on flat tracks where you can just stand and hit through the line of the ball and playing red ball cricket, which is completely different. um I used an analogy which I said is that white ball cricket is like driving an automatic car. You put it into D and you can step on the accelerator and just zoom off from ball number one. But in red ball cricket, you're actually driving a manual car. You know you have to go through the lower gears to earn the right of putting your car into overdrive later on in the innings. So good luck to him at number three, but I'd love to see how he goes against the likes of Henry Wilowrook and Tim Saudi at the Hagley Oval and at the Basin Reserve on a green top. Yeah, so look, you never wish badly on any
Jaswal's Performance and Ball Types
00:12:38
Speaker
cricketer. um So yeah, I'd wish him well, but
00:12:42
Speaker
time will tell us whether that's an inspired selection or not. I'm excited by the prospect of watching him play. I saw a little bit of him in the 100. I was in the yeah UK for for a month or so and I basically watched the 100 every single night when I was over there. And he's really impressive, but you're right. like The differences between test cricket cricket are so market.
00:13:03
Speaker
I know England are trying to bridge that gap and I i think a lot of their success with the basketball style has been on flatter pitches and and even like the conditions in England have have kind of changed they've they've changed the in order to facilitate um this batting approach. i think you know john um Crawley's probably one of the benefactors of that. um you know You see how how he is and when he's betting on any pitches with lateral movement or spin versus when he gets an opportunity to bat in home conditions. It's um you know it's nearly talk and cheese. Yeah, and at the same time, and i as you said previously, there are others who are scoring runs and counting cricket, but they're doing it at their own pace.
00:13:47
Speaker
The beauty of test cricket is that it is for five days. There is a reason why you've been given five days because it's a game of ah patience. It's a game of skill. It's a game of temperament um just because The team wants to finish the game in three, three and a half or four days and then go play golf for the remaining days. It doesn't mean you don't select the guy who takes 200 deliveries to get 200. There's nothing wrong getting to a ton in 200 balls in this cricket. Look at Jaswal yesterday against Australia. and up We all know what he can do in white ball cricket. um But we saw another side of him which showed that he's ready to
00:14:29
Speaker
you know, put his head down and play with soft hands and leave outside the orchestra and show respect to the red ball and then cash in later when it gets softer and easier to bet.
00:14:40
Speaker
ah and It becomes the difference between the greats and the have-nots. We saw that with A.B. de Villiers at times in his career. I remember when him and Faf saved a test for South African, it was probably you know one of the most entertaining batting performances I can remember when.
00:15:00
Speaker
It was like day five, I think I was at the Adelaide Oval um and the and the ball was turning all over the place. And that was just like such gripping and absorbing cricket. And I think sometimes some of these players need to understand that, you know, you you can play both both ways depending on the conditions. And as you said, Jasewell showed that in the test at Perth. um But I think his skill set is so supreme that, you know, he will go down as a a generational player, you know, for
England's Bowling Analysis
00:15:29
Speaker
India. ah But getting back to the England side, it's interesting when I look at the bowling line up because I feel like a lot of New Zealand fans are kind of dismissed it a little bit. um I know Jimmy Anderson obviously abroad and Ollie Robinson are here, but the actual bowling line up is actually quite good. um It's obviously not the big names that most people have expected over the years, but
00:15:51
Speaker
Gase could send out a really good series against the West Indies and Sri Lanka and he also got a hundred against Sri Lanka as well. um You've got Matt Potts who has had a really good run against Kane Williamson actually in his few tests that he played. You have Chris Wokes who isn't so good outside England but you'd imagine that he might get some pitches in New Zealand are similar to what he would bowl on in England.
00:16:20
Speaker
And then you've got Bridenkast, who was really impressive in Pakistan. Ollie Stone, who evolves rapid, but he's had a bit of ah an injury-rived career. So I think there is something to work with with England. Whether they've got the experience, I guess that's another question. But I think a lot of fans are kind of are overlooking how good this England attack could be, especially in New Zealand conditions.
00:16:44
Speaker
Yeah, and I think it'll come down to, again, to win a test match, you need to pick up 20 wickets. The question is, can the likes of Chris Vaux, Gus Atkinson, Braden Karschwe, Bashir, and Ben Stokes, to some extent, can they pick up 20 wickets? And I hand or not, I genuinely don't see that happening. you know um good The only notable name there you know is Chris Wokes. In New Zealand conditions, you'd expect him to get um swing and seam, so he's going to be a handful. And yes, Atkinson and Cass have had good starts to their careers. But again, and of I think on what England try and do is they try and force other teams to play
00:17:33
Speaker
the game at the pace that they like to play it. But New Zealand, on the other hand, is a kind of team that plays time. The likes of Latham, the likes of Williamson, the likes of Conway. These are guys who love playing time. And I think if New Zealand stop getting caught up in the whole England style of playing and play to their strengths and play time, I think these guys are going to get hard lesson in test cricket. And when they have to come back in that second, third, fourth, fifth spell, that's when that true test ends. And that's when Anderson and Broad used to be so good that session after session, spell after spell, they would come back and deliver. But this is untested territory for these bullers. So yeah, be interesting to see how they go. But yeah, just don't doesn't look like an attack that's going to pick up 20 wickets regularly.
New Zealand's Selection Strategy
00:18:28
Speaker
This doesn't have those big names that really stand out, does it? And in in obviously, Mark Woods not in the team as well. um He's injured. If he was in the team, he would he would definitely have been an interesting addition because he didn't come on the the last tour in England ahead of New Zealand a couple of years ago. and yeah He was here. He didn't play, did he? He didn't play, did he? He played at the mount. He didn't play at the base and he played at the mount. Did he? Okay.
00:18:57
Speaker
okay Yeah, I saw him at the test. He was bowling some real thunderbolts.
00:19:03
Speaker
So just the New Zealand side, so we've probably gone over the England side a little bit, a little bit too long here, but in regards to the New Zealand side, I mean, there's a team coming off, obviously, the great win in India, the confident, um they've got a few selection headaches ahead of of the match. Trying to fit Will Young into the team, um he was player of the series against India. Would you select him in the New Zealand 11?
00:19:33
Speaker
the No brainer, he's got to play. For far too long, New Zealand's heard on the side of caution by not picking players when they're informed. We did it with Rajin Ravindra, straight after that.
00:19:47
Speaker
ODI woke up in India. We went to Bangladesh and we kept him on the sideline for two test matches, then got him home and we played him against um South Africa, I think. And that's when he started scoring all the, he scored a double hundred there and he started scoring all these big runs. ah We cannot afford to do that. In a country of 5 million people, you've got to play players when they're informed. um I think we need to go the England way. They've given the glass to Ali Pope. We need to give the glass to Tom Latham.
00:20:17
Speaker
and we need to drop Blundell and play William. That has got to be, and again, I don't think it will happen, but I think that is what should happen. Your thoughts.
00:20:32
Speaker
I guess it's risky going in with a keeper that isn't a specialist test keeper. That's the only thing that I will say. I know England are going to go in with Ollie Pope um as as their keeper. and So if New Zealand were to give the gloves either Conway or Latham, it would be in a similar um kind of scenario. And Ollie Pope in this test is actually going to bet at number six. So for Conway or Latham to take the gloves, it would mean one of them would have to drop down the order.
00:21:03
Speaker
Now they've been a successful opening partnership for the last couple of years. Do you break that partnership up to get Will Young in? I guess that's the question. Could you elevate Will Young to open? Will his career as an opener for New Zealand hasn't been flash? um I think he really found his feet in India batting at number three.
00:21:25
Speaker
ah i think it's ah I think it's a very challenging situation. I mean the other option would be is that you could put Ravindra to open the batting and then you can have Williamson at 3, Will Young at Darryl Mitchell at 5 and then you could have Latham or Conway and then um Sorry, yeah, Latham. So what am running I I'm kind of struggling with what I'm doing with the team now. um Probably Latham at six keeping and England Phillips. Something like that. Yeah, see, again, at the level that I have ah doesn't have Phillips in it. So. um
00:22:12
Speaker
If Blundell has dropped, then Glenn Phillips is part of my 11, because I knew that they wouldn't go down that road. So when I came up with 11, I had Leithan and Conway opening. I had Will Young at three, I had Kane Williamson at four, Rachan at five, Daryl Mitchell at six, Tom Blundell at seven, debutant Nathan Smith at eight, Tim Saadi at nine, Matt Henry at 10, and Willow Rook at 11, which meant that we just go in with Rachan as our soul spinner.
00:22:41
Speaker
um and And there'll be it because at the haggly oval, we all know what we're going to get as far as the pitch is concerned. Even on days two, three, four, there is enough assistance for the seamers on
Predictions for Playing XI
00:22:54
Speaker
that pitch. um So I don't think Phillips is going to offer you a better wicket taking option.
00:23:03
Speaker
than the likes of for Nathan Smith um on on those wickets, and similarly at the basin as well. So I just go with that 11. But again, I think Gary stayed in his press conference, I heard, has said at least a couple of times that Phillips will definitely pay, which means that either Nathan Smith doesn't get a debut or Will Young misses out. ah and We'll wait and watch.
00:23:28
Speaker
I think ah think the team that they will go for, I think they're going to be quite um brutal with Will Young. I think they will go Conway Latham. I think Williamson 3, Pravindra 4, Dara Mitchell 5, Blundell 6, Glenn Phillips 7, Nathan Smith 8, Tim Salvie 9, Henry 10 and Willow Rourke 11. I think that's the 11 that I think they will go with.
00:23:57
Speaker
um yeah but And it's sad if that happens, but yeah, ah they might just go down that road. I think if one of the um betters has a poor test, um I think Will Young and could get a shot on the second test. there I think there's going to be a bit of pressure on some betters if he does miss out. But then who do you drop? Everybody's done decently in India to warrant at least two test matches.
00:24:23
Speaker
if not three. um So, you know, the likes of Latham, Conway, Rachin and Daryl Mitchell, all four of them are never going to drop Williamson. So yeah, if they don't pick him in this first test, I don't see how they'll pick him in the second because you can't drop someone just after a couple of failures in one test match. um But anyway, that's, we're not selectors. So that's not our job. That's why they get paid the big bucks.
00:24:52
Speaker
the Well, I heard someone talk about potentially dropping Daryl Mitchell, and I was thinking, well, look how good Daryl Mitchell has been over the last couple of years for New Zealand. He's been like one of the cornerstones of the team. um And you think about some of the the best victories that New Zealand Crickets had over the last couple of years. He's been involved in it but in them so in all formats. So it'd be quite difficult to drop home, wouldn't it? If he plays a reverse sweep to the first ball he faces or dances down the wicket and tries to hit it,
00:25:22
Speaker
straight down the ground for a sixth, then yes, definitely drop him. He's a much better player than that. Yeah. Who knows? Maybe if it's a green pitch, maybe he'll get a chance to bowl some of his late, medium-paced dobblies because he's had a he said a got a good record at Haggly, Haggly Oval, especially in domestic cricket. So I think he knows. I think his bowling's actually gone down the Manus Labuschen kind of way now.
00:25:51
Speaker
um Yeah, he he he used to be really handy. um But over the years, I think when once the betting has come to the fore, the bowling's just...
00:26:03
Speaker
I don't see him even bowling that often in the nets. So, um yeah, very military medium these days. Well, he used to be tilted as a replacement for Colin de Gromholm at one point. um And I think, as as as you rightly point out, you know, his betting has kind of just flourished and his his bowling has kind of just become like kind of forgotten. um and we saw like in the T20 World Cup, unfortunately, he came on and he got belted around the the park a little bit. Doesn't help when your captain asks you to come and bowl the final over in a T20. No. Not once, but twice or thrice. No, I think Shafane Rutherford's eyes just ah widened when he saw Derrimoch come to the crease. He was like, I thought all his Christmases came at once.
00:26:49
Speaker
yeah so regarding the result of the test series obviously New Zealand needs to basically clean sweep England to once they guarantee them they must spot themselves a spot on the final but um to push themselves close to
Series Outcome Predictions
00:27:09
Speaker
a spot. Obviously, it it depends on other results. Indy obviously beat Australia in the test in Perth. South Africa's got a relatively um easy run. and We've got four tests at home against Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Although, um I wouldn't be surprised if they lose one of those or two of those those four matches. The way test cricket's going at the moment, you wouldn't really write anything off right now. um So what what are your predictions for the series?
00:27:36
Speaker
Yeah, they need to win 3-0, but i as much as I want that to happen, I don't see a clean sweep. um I think weather permitting will have results in two of the games. And we might just, um in our favor, and then expect England to bite back or um you know draw at least one of the games. So I think a 2-1 or a 2-0 result in New Zealand is what I'm predicting.
00:28:04
Speaker
ah But hi, I predicted a 3-0 result in favor of India not so long back. And look what happened with that. So what do I know? ah So did I, and I tweeted it, and I remember after New Zealand won the first test, I was like, I wish I wouldn't have done that now. And I don't think any of us would have predicted the 3-0 win to New Zealand. But yeah, look, I agree with you regarding the result. I can see a 2-0 New Zealand or a 2-1 New Zealand. I don't think it will be a quite clean sweep, unfortunately.
00:28:35
Speaker
and then New Zealand will be obviously sweating on other results um to see whether they are shot at the WTC um final. and Who do you reckon is going to be the top wicket taker of the series and the top run scorer?
00:28:52
Speaker
I've got a funny feeling and I'm a romantic at heart. So I've got a funny feeling this is going to be the swan song that ah Tim Saudi needs ah or deserves. And um I see him actually being the top picket taker in this series, just because of the surface is that and it's still early summer. I see him really getting the ball to talk and picking up the
Top Performers Predictions
00:29:18
Speaker
kids.
00:29:18
Speaker
um so Tim Saadeen, top wicket taker, runs. um You can't go past Joe Roode, can you? I mean, he's just in such phenomenal form. Every time he walks out to the crease, he looks like a million dollars. um He finds ways to score runs off the Fab Four, the original Fab Four.
00:29:42
Speaker
There are only two remaining at the moment, at least on current form, and both of them are playing in this series. um So, yeah, I think I'd picture it for top transcorer of the series. It's kind of like George Harrison, the one that's kind of understated, but the one that's had a longer career.
00:29:59
Speaker
um I will go Harry Brooke top run scorer of the series. And I'm going to go Mr. Hagley over himself, Matt Henry to be top wicket taker of the series. we Good picks. yeah Good pick. Those would be my second two. ah think I think Matt Henry's at that stage of his career where he is so consistent that he's always amongst the wickets. And it's really hard seeing him have a bad test. He's just in that zone at the moment.
00:30:30
Speaker
Yeah, and look, he bought beautifully in India. And yeah, I wouldn't be surprised with a little bit of help from the wickets and the aggressive style of the English betters ah might just work in his favor. And yeah, you're absolutely right. He would pick up a lot of wickets.
Episode Conclusion
00:30:51
Speaker
Wow, time has just flown so quickly. We won't even get a chance to talk about and the India versus Australia series. But Raulik, thanks very much for joining this episode or the cricketers. Absolutely pleasure to have you on. um Can't wait to have you back sometime um to talk more about crickets. Absolutely. it's been a As you said, time's flown by.
00:31:16
Speaker
You know, and would love to do this again. And yeah, I will be live ah covering the basin test and the um sit-in-park test this summer. Yeah, look forward to catching up with you in Hamilton and yeah, go from there, go there. Thanks for your time, mate.