Keep Southee To Tests?

It’s official. New Zealand cricket has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to bowlers, particularly with our quicks.

It’s quite a turnaround from the days when we were picking guys like Lance Hamilton and Brent Arnel to the national team, i.e. good solid provincial players who weren’t quite international quality.

One must remember that we also have allrounders who can bowl fast/medium in Corey Anderson, Jimmy Neesham and Ben Wheeler.

Let’s have a look at our bowling stocks at the moment.

Trent Boult is clearly our premier bowler at the moment in all forms of the game. The Northern Districts lightning bolt isn’t one of the quickest bowlers in the world, but man he can get that ball to move quickly and how.

I would consider Doug Bracewell and Matt Henry to be contenders for 2^nd best quick bowler in all forms of the game.

Henry has been a bit unlucky and lucky in terms of selection for the side. He is unlucky that he is not really considered a first choice bowler, being always tipped as a reserve for Tim Southee and Trent Boult. On the other hand, injuries and resting policies have meant that Henry has lucked in and got a chance to show that he really deserves his place in the first choice side. He’s New Zealand’s version of Michael Kasprowicz.

For Doug, this is a remarkable turnaround for the man who was forgotten by many following his escapades with bad boy, Jesse Ryder. The third generation Bracewell always had the class to be an international cricketer since his demolition job of the Aussies in Hobart 4 years ago.

Mitchell McClenaghan has clearly established himself as a specialist in the shorter forms of the game. He is combative but doesn’t quite have the skills to last in the longer form of cricket – and even he knows that.

By contrast, Neil Wagner is definitely a test specialist although one could say he would do alright in the shorter forms of the game if given the chance. He is definitely our quickest bowler.

Adam Milne is one for the future – he has potential to be quick although injuries have stymied his progress. Hopefully he doesn’t turn into another Ian Butler or Hamish Bennett, two NZ quicks who have had major injury issues.

Which leaves us with Tim Southee.

I’m not doubting that Tim Southee would be considered one of our premier bowlers given his record. However, as they say form is temporary, class is permanent, Tim is right now in a bit of a form slump not helped by a nagging injury.

At this point in time, given how the Sri Lanka series has transpired, Southee should just concentrate on test cricket, enabling Matt Henry to start in the one dayers and Twenty20s. This approach helped Trent Boult earlier in his career and should help Southee find the top form that we know he is capable of.

It is incredible to think that New Zealand cricket is in such a position that it could consider dropping its premier fast bowler on form only when in the past, we were trying to drag out a good game from our out-of-form players. Indeed, only our great rivals, Australia could boast to be in such a strong position with their bowlers – remember when Australia could pick when fit Stuart Clark, Brett Lee, Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie, Michael Kasprowicz, Shaun Tait, Nathan Bracken and Brad Williams?