Comment: Jeet Raval types are more precious than the All Blacks forwards

Jeet Raval will be engaging more in such brainstorming sessions with New Zealand batting coach and former NZ opener Peter Fulton. Photo / Photosport

Remember? It wasn't that long ago they were baying for the blood of opening batsman Tom Latham.

"Dump him," was the standard quip from the great unwashed towards the Cantabrian who is now middling the ball with confidence and purpose in the test arena.

Once again, the grumbling seems to be hitting a crescendo — this time it's directed at Black Caps opener Jeet Raval.

The critics are serving up the numbers as one would beer pretzels at a drinking hole, strategically located around marquee venues in the country.

Statistical sandwiches, as many will attest to, do become a yardstick of sorts but more often serve as truncheons to bludgeon the new-ball facing merchants. That is, chuck in variables pertaining to who the oppositions are, where you're playing and what the political climate is in the selection process and you'll find New Zealand have had more openers in the past decade than any other cutlery in the New Zealand Cricket drawers.

You see, opening batsmen are precious. Yes, I'm afraid to say, even more than All Blacks forwards come Rugby World Cup time.

It's funny how they become the sacrificial lambs in a format that tends to book end seasons creaking under the weight of white-ball indulgence.

In sticking with the cutlery analogy, it seems openers are expected to make bottles fizz and froth every time they are yanked out of a drawer. It hardly matters the quality of the content in the bottle, just shake it hard, baby.

That's where the portfolio of opening batsmen in red-ball cricket differs markedly from the white-ball one.

Adopting a resolute stance, they are expected to occupy the crease on a gluttony of deliveries. Whether they make half tons or centuries is a moot point. Their primary preoccupation should be to take the shine off the ball so adept batsmen in the mould of captain Kane Williamson and veteran Ross Taylor can assert themselves with some authority. You can add BJ Watling — who could have been an old-fashioned cork screw variety opener — to that list, too.

Going on to carve up big scores would be ideal but shouldn't be a prerequisite when they ask for middle and leg. Former test opener Jeremy Coney agrees.

That is not to say Raval, who is averaging 32.29 in the test arena from 22 tests and commands an ICC ranking of No 47, is necessarily doing that of late.

If anything the 31-year-old, who represents the Auckland Aces, appeared to be adopting an aggressive stance at the Bay Oval in Mt Maunganui where the cargo ships seemed to be moving faster than the test match.

At Seddon Park, Hamilton, Raval trudged off the crease after an lbw decision for a duck in his second dig.

Did he not feel the thick edge on his bat or was the lefthander's departure a sign of resignation?

It's an oopsy-daisy moment for Jeet Raval against England but you wouldn't drop an opening bowler from a line up for fielding mishaps so why is an opening batsman any different? Photo / AP

It speaks volumes on the cricketer's state of mind when you take into account his fielding mishaps. Again the significance of grinding down the ball for better consumption down the order takes precedence over fielding brilliance. Teams don't drop opening seamers because they are sloppy on the boundary so why batsmen.

Now juxtapose those scenarios with Latham who made his debut in 2014 with a duck after grabbing his opportunity when Taylor was injured.

The selectors kept faith with the 27-year-old lefthander from Canterbury who now averages 44.03. More importantly, he's accrued 82 innings from 47 matches and adds value as a wicketkeeper. Watling has had a history of injuries so Latham's a logical insurance policy in both departments.

What is worth noting is that Latham — who entered the test equation on his domestic one-day campaign — has remained in the Black Caps' ODI thought processes with 88 innings from 95 matches.

To be put predominantly on a diet of domestic cricket on driveways around the country isn't ideal preparation for test matches.

Raval has done better than 33-year-old Aces right-hand counterpart Guptill who averages 29.39 from 47 matches and retired Cantabrian Peter Fulton (25.45 from 23 matches) now Black Caps batting coach.

Otago leftie Hamish Rutherford, 30, on the other hand, has been hard done by, averaging 26.96 and is cruelly a victim of Guptill, discarded in 2016 after 16 matches.

Otago leftie Hamish Rutherford, 30, is cruelly a victim of Martin Guptill, discarded in 2016 after 16 matches. Photo / Photosport

Age seems to be a common denominator in test batsmen but let's face it, the format isn't for the young and restless.

The irony is most players here are picked on their one-day prowess on "pelter pitches" that are nothing but false economies, accentuated by dropped catches, before embarking on test tours.

Northern Districts batsman Daryl Mitchell, on a familiar Seddon Park, showed what he could do as a fair like-for-like substitute for Colin de Grandhomme's medium deliveries but was his knock a test one or a whiteball variety?

ESPN Cricinfo scribe George Dobell comes under the vitriol of an English whinger but, boredom aside, does he make a pertinent point?

Dobell does and, dare I say it, the wickets aren't just killing test cricket but other formats here, too. Part of the lack of interest here can be attributed to the hangover from the ODI World Cup loss amid England's apathy.

Was there a fair battle between bat and ball in the test here?

Emphatically no and England's body language confirms that. If there was I must have blinked although you come to expect Neil Wagner to bend and break his back all day.

Expect the foyer of the casualty ward of bowling to be cluttered this summer.

Like India tend to do, it looks like England were simply going through the motions to fulfil diplomatic obligations and couldn't wait to hop back on their flight home.

England seamer Jofra Archer seems to have held the job description of a hitman — bounce and maim. What a waste of opportunity to showcase spectacles but Archer is clever enough not to risk his limbs. To write them off as bad debts on such poor variables is myopic.

Black Caps coach Gary Stead rightly opted for Matt Henry's swing over Lockie Ferguson's blinding pace on account of lifeless wickets to save the Auckland strike bowler for better purchase.

With Australia looming, I would guess Steady's bigger concern will be how much game time test spinners have had while Mitchell Santner continues to fulfil his allrounder's apprenticeship.

A more pressing issue than Jeet Raval are dormant spinners of the ilk of Todd Astle (right) desperate for crease time while Mitchell Santner fulfils his allrounder's apprenticeship. Photo/Photosport