@MN5 said in West Indies tour of NZ:
@Chris said in West Indies tour of NZ:
The decision to re select Blundell over Hay as I have said before is a poor one.
Compare the reckless shot Blundell played in his score of 4 to the 61 Hay scored when NZ was in trouble in the previous tests, shows who will contribute more.
Blundell dropped a catchable one down the leg side, and anyone who says it was hard sure, but if you get a decent glove on it you should catch it at test level, he just moved too late at 35 that is going to happen.
Hay is the best WK in NZ as he anticipates very well and gets in to catching positions very easily compared to other keepers, and stays down longer which gets him in to good positions to take the ball and keeps his head and eyes more in line with the ball.
It is always easier to catch a ball staying low and coming up than coming up too soon and having to re adjust.
Blundell has been an admirable trooper for NZ and a handy successor to Watling but the fact he walked straight back in after Hay made every single post a winner ( some excellent keeping from what I saw to go with a very handy score ) is a bit troubling for me. His batting continues to be far more misses than hits too.
The coaching staff are very loyal though, they can point to Conways efforts in this series as justification for this I suppose but Hay looks a seriously good long term talent who should get his chance now especially in an ageing team ( Ravindra the only other top six batsman under 30 )
I think something we realised after the bad old days of the 1990s, when selection was a merry-go-round of pick, discard and re-pick is that you don't want guys to feel like they're playing for their place every time they go out to bat. And avoiding that perception means you've got to back people through their slumps - not just for them - but, to give everyone else confidence too.
The balancing act is recognizing when a change has got to happen. In part, that might need help from the player themselves recognizing their time is up, before the selectors have to. Conversations - which is probably a more mature way of running a team compared to having selectorial "gods".
We didn't quite get that right with Tim Southee. I think they should have given Hay this test as well as part of what looks to me to be a necessary transition. Blundell has been deteriorating for a while now - in his last 20 tests he's averaged 18, with one century and one fifty. Hay's matched the latter in his first test innings.