Cricket: Axe hovers over NZ batsmen

Tim McIntosh is among a handful of batsmen facing the axe after the latest test defeat. Photo / Getty Images

Depending on which batsmen have most raised the selectors' hackles, three players are in line for the axe from the New Zealand third test team to face Pakistan in Napier this week.

Captain Dan Vettori made it clear last night that something has to be done to arrest a bad run of performances by the batsmen against Pakistan, which includes consecutive innings of 153 - with four ducks in the top seven batsmen - and a wretched 99. The question is not if, but who gets the chop.

Among the top six, Ross Taylor is the exception; opener Martin Guptill will stay, although he's only managed 75 runs at 18.7 in four innings. So too Daniel Flynn, who at least grafted 5h 8min over 29 and 20 at the Basin Reserve - solid stuff in this context. However lefthander Tim McIntosh (37 runs at 9.5), and middle-order pair Peter Fulton (42 at 10.5).and Grant Elliott (59 at 14.7) all in four innings are on a knife edge. At least one must go.

The three strongest candidates are Otago opener Craig Cumming, who has 288 Plunket Shield runs at 57.6 and is an 11-test veteran with an ordinary average of 25.94; provincial teammate Neil Broom, who with a couple of centuries this season appears the middle-order choice with 395 runs at 79.0; and Northern Districts' batsman BJ Watling, with 241 at 80.33, who could do a top- or middle-order job.

Cumming is 34 and would be a short-term measure; Watling is the face of the future and went on the limited-overs tour to Abu Dhabi and Dubai recently. The key is whether the selectors, Vettori, Mark Greatbatch and Glenn Turner, want to change the top or middle order - or both.

"Everyone scoring runs will get a mention," Vettori said, wearing his selectors' hat.

Expect offspinner Jeetan Patel to be in the squad for Napier, to be named today, but that will be no surprise. The real interest will be higher up the order.