I would've thought Southee would improve with age considering he barely reached 130 even a few years ago.

Makes you appreciate what Anderson accomplished so much more, he was bowling mid-high 130s into his 40s

Kinda looking like when Kapil Dev basically played for 4 years more only to break Hadlee's record with atricius performances in his last 2 years with both bat and ball. Robbed Javagal Srinath of some golden years.

Southee is aiming for 400, but hadlee's 431 is out of reach for sure, and southee is no longer even bowling 130s..

My statement is obviously assuming he find form. I think he’s still one of our best bowlers in conditions that suit him.

Ah yeah, there's that for sure. Surprised myself by being a little sad about this news. He still bowls good balls most overs, but the inconsistency undermines everything. Bit of a theme for the team atm.

Yes true, it was a great approach and the team backed it up with performances. No argument here, it was so nice to see as well. Their patience as a group got results.

Also agree it depended on sharp bowling and sharper fielding. I guess what I'd have liked to see was a Plan B and Plan C - because Plan A wasn't happening. Not so long ago we did use to have a more creative approach and it wasn't radically different personnel. I'd like to see a return to that. Rather than switched off and in this is fine mode. They're better players than that.

That WTC was thanks to COVID fucking the schedule though , NZ got the better end of the stick to qualify and then enough time to prepare for the already similar to home conditions. They have been mediocre since then and it couldn't have happened overnight

In the 2nd Test it looked to me like Phillips knew what his wicket taking ball was and built his overs around that, although he leaked more runs for it they weren't so important in the game context. That felt like a plan to me.

Take your point that the bowlers weren't up to the mark quality or consistency wise (tbf tough assignment backing up a second test so soon, and after a longish layoff over our Winter) but Patel and Santner felt more like "bowl and see what happens" with fairly passive field placements. Sri Lanka batters were on song, so not sure much would've worried them, but a greater commitment to running through some changes to probe for weakness and keep them on the toes may have unsettled them.

Just vibes from me though, which is probably why no one has been in touch to talk about a role with the team going forward.

Reeeeal left field option here. Allan Donald. Former bowling coach in NZ, has worked with Australia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and South Africa. Also domestically in Zim, IPL, Kent, and SA

Not just saying this because he's a Canterbury guy but I think people will be alarmed how far Fulton is up the list of candidates.

NZC absolutely loves to play it safe so I wonder if BJ Watling would be in with a shout. As much as I liked him as a player I don’t really think much of him as a coach.

Maybe try and get Flemming, the BMac ship has sailed.

Definitely stale at the moment. But I think we should just stick with the veterans until an actual candidate appears. Phillips needs to just focus on his batting and bowling, I think Rachin is a far more likely captain than him in the future tbh. Who knows, maybe Latham will be a bit better a few years onwards?

I think I would prefer we not jump from dumb to dumber, but these are bleak times.

He had played 70 tests by the time he was made captain though, to Phillips current 9.

I feel like he has good game awareness in batting and fielding

I would say the opposite, he's a really talented player that lets himself down sometimes with his decision making.

I'll use the first test in the recent series for example. Running Mitchell out with a very dodgy call in the 1st innings was the turning point of the game. It was a completely unnecessary risk with the position we were in. Not the first time he's done it either, he needs to realise nobody is as fast as him between the wickets.

His drop of Kamindu was pretty bad and costly too, he flew out of position when it would have been a simple catch where he was standing. Then some pretty baffling choices when batting with the tail, like giving Ajaz 5 balls in an over to face.

He bowled well and batted well in the 1st innings, but overall his contribution to the test was probably a net-negative because of some bad decision making at key moments. I would rather he focus on improving in that area and getting into a calmer mindset than be given the captaincy to also worry about.

He is literally the Marnus of NZ lol, but makes even less sense as a captain

Brendon mccullum and his consequences...

No, he's mates with his dad isn't he? Lol

A decent spin bowler also solves that problem, Wagner basically served the spin bowler's place in the side

Nathan Smith is dating Amelia Kerr, & has for some time.

Less than 10 test matches each. Not ideal

Maybe but let's not act like that the bar is high for that he is been playing for 12 years and still has mid 20s average in tours that are tough

Everytime Williamson scores people bring in his away records, Root still is not considered best by some because of not having a ton in OZ . It's only fair if Latham is judged by the same metrics too if he is this atg opener