Hate to say I told ya so...

Following the Blackcaps loss to Bangladesh which knocked them out of the 2017 Champions Trophy, I ventured into the wilderness of the web to see what the vibe of other cricket writers was. These thoughts on Aotearoa zoned in on many of the obvious problems that held the Blackcaps back; Martin Guptill struggling, the middle order not doing anything, bowlers unable to restrict run-scoring let alone take 10 wickets and some even touched on the great form that Tom Latham was in prior to this tournament.

That's as far back as they went though and after delivering oodles of Blackcaps funk this summer, we endured a kiwi summer in which Blackcaps decision-makers essentially set the Blackcaps up for Champions Trophy failure. Sure, if individuals performed to the best of their ability then the Blackcaps could have finished as a top-four ODI team but that would ignore the fact that Aotearoa's 11 best ODI cricketers weren't there. 

Perhaps the lack of any clear plan, any clear playing style or visible clarity in individual roles contributed to poor performances and when you consider that the only jokers to really play to their abilities were our best cricketers, I'd suggest that the lack of clarity did contribute to role-players ... well, not playing their role.

Of course the Blackcaps had a plan, they had a style of cricket they wanted to play and they'll tell us that players had simple roles to execute. The thing is that we should be able to spot these, they should be that obvious, and if they really existed, international players should really be able to execute. Instead of sussing these plans and which players could best execute these plans over the course of the summer in preparation for the CT, we saw players come and go in a buffet of weird selections that we highlighted at the time and now looking back, y'all can see how those decisions led the Blackcaps to this point.

I'll spend the next few days combing through scorecards from the summer to paint a picture of the selection shambles that has seen the Blackcaps under-deliver. I gotta do my research and what not but my hot-take is that this wasn't the best group of ODI cricketers from Aotearoa, and on top of that this group of cricketers weren't really given much to work with either.

A point that I've harped on about during the CT has been the all-rounder situation. Against England we saw Ben Stokes do some things and ahead of the Bangladesh game I noted how I had forgot to mention Hardik Phandya for India and Shakib Al Hasan for Bangladesh. It was the Bangladesh veteran and for many 'the best all-rounder in the whole wide world' Al Hasan who torched the Blackcaps with a glorious 114 off 115 balls batting at No.5, after he had bowled 10 overs of left-arm spin. 

Granted, Al Hasan's spin didn't really offer much of a threat as he didn't take a wicket and conceded 5.20 rpo but 10 overs of spin in which you only conceded three boundaries is pretty decent. And who cares; the beauty of being an all-rounder is you get a chance to influence the game in both innings. As the Blackcpas all-rounders generally sucked, Al Hasan flexed.

Before this tournament, we heard from Lesson how important power would be in a batting line up and having Jimmy Neesham batting No.6 and Corey Anderson batting No.7 reflects that desire for power. Al Hasan isn't overly powerful, he actually looks kinda awkward but is crafty in how he gets the ball to the boundary and as I watched Al Hasan dominate the kiwi bowlers, I settled on the only word to describe his stroke-play: funky.

That's because Al Hasan is a very legit international batsman and has been for a long time. Al Hasan and Mahmudullah (102 off 107) brought Bangladesh back from the brink after losing 4 quicky wickets, while in three CT games, the Blackcaps middle order did the exact opposite, crumbling after reasonable foundations had been laid.

Gotta give credit where it's due; Kane Williamson was sublime throughout the tournament, while Ross Taylor, Tim Southee and Trent Boult weren't quite as good but were solid. As we follow Williamson's cricketing odyssey, I lean more towards supporting Williamson first and foremost, I watch the Blackcaps because I want to see Williamson bat and experience the pleasure of a perfect late-dab over and over again. 

Shout outz to Taylor as well because regular readers will know that we kinda think that Taylor is getting a raw-deal from NZ Cricket and any time Taylor scores some runs, I'm happy.
Guptill under-delivered.

The Luke Ronchi experiment went exactly as you'd expect; a big knock and two not so big knocks.

Neil Broom didn't pass 37 runs since the Blackcaps moved from Ireland to England and as Broom was effectively brought back into the team to bat No.5 in the CT (planning, yey!), the Neil Broom thing was a bit of a failure as well with CT scores of: 14, 11 and 36.

To sum up Anderson, Neesham and Santner, we've got no idea who our best all-rounder is because none of them wanted to claim that spot. 

An alternative to those three lads could have been to pick another specialist batsman to bat No.6 (or just Anderson/Neesham/Santner), a bowler who can bat a bit (Matt Henry) and a genuine wicket-taking leggy (Ish Sodhi). Instead we had three lads who are mediocre at batting and bowling.

Adam Milne took wickets which was nice, although he was the most expensive bowler against England (7.9rpo) and while the collective spanking of Neesham, Anderson and Williamson saved Milne from the honour against Bangladesh, he was the most expensive of the three frontline seamers; 6.21rpo vs Southee's 5rpo and Boult's 4.8rpo.

The last thought I'll leave y'all with is about the players who were in the squad but weren't given a chance. Mitchell McClenaghan would have been a better fourth bowling option than Neesham and/or Anderson, Jeetan Patel could have offered a point of difference in giving the Blackcaps two spinners instead of a predictable seam attack and at this stage you could make a serious case for Colin de Grandhomme being our top-dawg all-rounder thanks to the lacklustre performances of the others. 

If Anderson's batting No.7 without success, de Grandhomme can do that job.
Three games isn't much time and I understand why changes weren't made, I just struggle to believe that the best team (from the squad selected) was played in those three games. 

And then we've got Tom Latham. Don't get me started.

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