I would agree Papps has been treated poorly. I feel Sinclair has had enough opportunities, and scratching 2 terrific innings he has performed poorly.
Test Team
1 McIntosh - if we want to say Papps was treated poorly, to me a bloke who is willing to put his head down and bat nigh on a day against Australia is worth perservering with. He has to have another 2 series IMO.
2 Watling - Again, it would be premature to discard him. He shows some good signs, he just needs some confidence and a sense of security. One good innings and he could be a decent bat for NZ.
3 Sinclair - he's now in the team, he needs an opportunity to cement it. I thought he was getting it against England and failed to take it, but if NZ are fair dinkum about FINALLY knowing one way or the other whether he can do it or whether he's just a first class flat track bully then they need to give him another full series
4 Taylor - One of Crowe's advantages in becoming NZ's best bats is he generally had someone like John Wright or Andrew Jones or Jeremy Coney who had been around for a while and had cemented themselves also batting in the top order. I don't think Taylor's had that, and mentally he has swiped away many good starts. I'd like to see him bat behind a settled top 3 for a series or two and just concentrate on his own game, and his game should be, get my eye in, and then play normal cricket strokes.
5 Martin Guptill - Ponting was saying he thinks Southee and Guptill are the two blokes coming through who impress him as being talented enough to do well. Largely I feel he's let himself down in this series. But the problem he has are manageable, and IMO the problems are part and parcel of having practically no first class cricket behind him (similar to many NZ bats). If he can iron out a bit more control on the drive he will be a profitable batsman.
6 Jesse Ryder - It's a fait a compli that NZ desperately need him back in there. Not only the best timer in New Zealand cricket by a long, long margin, he is a bit of a partnership breaker.
7 Brendon McCullum
8 Daniel Vettori - He's best suited down the order. The reason he's been up the order is not a batting issue at all, he's because he has no confidence in his bowling attack so he tries to get by with one more bowler. Throwing more numbers at something doesn't necessarily improve the quality.
9 Tim Southee - Much like McIntosh, he shows signs. I hope he can take the confidence of the first innings and realise he's up to this level.
10 Brent Arnel - he gets later nip off the wicket than the others, he's worth a shot
11 Andy McKay - he's quicker than the others, he's worth a shot
What the attack really lacks is a spinner who turns the ball prodigiously (which is why opposition teams can bat for days in their second innings against New Zealand), and a bowler who can achieve bounce. I'm not convinced Andy McKay is that guy either, watching him live at McClean Park against the Bangas he looked lively enough in terms of pace, but it seemed to skid on rather than slam into the top half of the bat, which to me is the one element the Australian pace bowlers are very, very, very good at. It's not so much their sideways movement, it's the ability to hit the top half of the bat and cause the batsmen to lose control.
New Zealand needs to say it's time to move on from Chris Martin, technically he is an ordinary bowler, with a fairly lengthy but not convincing test career. He is an inswinger who does nothing else, and when he does move it it's from the hand and not late enough to trouble good batsmen. Also, he is an extreme liability in basically you know when you start out you're 1 down. A professional cricketer should have developed his batting skills enough to be able to play a forward defence to a straight one. To me, that's not cult status worthy, that's cringe worthy that he's got away with it for so long. Even Glenn McGrath improved his batting enough to get a 50 and if you were desperate there were some occasions when he would fight it out with a Stephen Waugh to help Australia out. With Martin, you have no hope. They also need to move on from offies like Patel who don't turn it, and furthermore, unlike Vettori have no ability to vary things. Vettori can contain batsmen by his variations in speed and flight, but Patel and McCullum are very much one paced and especially when it's not turning, and even more so when it won't turn quickly, they're easily dispatched.
New Zealand need to ask Santa for a bounce bowler at good speed, and a spinner who can spin the ball. Forget the lack of runs, New Zealand does not have the attack to get 20 wickets in a test match against genuinely good opposition.
