African Monkey
First Grade
- Messages
- 8,671
Clearly you forgot about Richardson as he was one of our best openers of all time. I would have thought that after Bell touring in 2001 with his silly technique that you would have a different opinion of him.Bell has been the best Test opener I've seen in a NZ side for a while. That might not be saying much, sure, but you have to have him in there. Redmond is clearly useless. Now, I don't follow the NZ domestic scene obviously, so there may be some better options out there, but IMO this order would suit NZ better
1-How (ideally a 3 from what I've seen, but I don't know any other options)
2-Bell
3-Taylor (Ryder is not up to it at 3 IMO, Taylor while immature would be a better option I think)
4-Fulton/Flynn (at least Flynn has shown the ability to dig in)
5-Ryder
6-Oram (obviously injured for this series, which hasn't helped)
7-McCullum
etc
Another opener would allow How to bat 3, push Taylor down and leave Ryder, Fulton and Flynn to fight it our for the number 5 spot but as I said I don't know any of the domestic players. And tbh, I think NZ need to blood some players, get their best players (How, Oram, Taylor, McCullum etc) in their best spots and then build the best side they can around that.
I agree with you on How being more suited at 3 but lack of depth in the opening batting position has forced him to open the batting.
My top 7 for the WI would be the same as I said earlier except for Oram coming in for Fulton with Flynn moving up 1 position.