Cricket: Selectors likely to stick to same batsmen

Allrounder Jacob Oram may add depth to the team. Photo / Getty Images

New Zealand have three days to figure out how to get back into their test series against India.

Should it be a switch to a spin focus among the bowling attack, or re-arranging the fast-medium order?

Is allrounder Jacob Oram, a favourite of captain Dan Vettori, a must to return to bolster both departments?

And does a No 9, 10 and 11 of Jeetan Patel, Iain O'Brien and Chris Martin instil confidence?

All these and more issues will have been in the national selectors' minds yesterday as they look ahead to the second test starting at McLean Park in Napier on Thursday.

They'll want to avoid doing another chorus of the deckchair shuffle.

As coach Andy Moles pointed out yesterday, "A week ago they were deemed the best players in the country. For the continuity of the side and the growth of the team it's important we don't have massive change to the team."

New Zealand lost the first test by 10 wickets inside four days in Hamilton on Saturday. They were so far behind the eight-ball at lunch on day one that they were on a different table for the rest of the test.

And what are India's problems right now? They extend to pondering whether to go for the murgh tikka or the lamb korma for dinner tonight.

Put your shirt on them fielding the same line-up at Napier, unless the fungal infection which has forced a shuffling of the pitch a metre sideways demands two spinners.

So while the Indians will arrive in Napier supremely confident, it's New Zealand who must now force the issue.

Expect the selectors, Glenn Turner, John Wright and Dion Nash, to stick with the same batting lineup from Hamilton.

Although three of the top six missed out in Hamilton, opener Tim McIntosh may have been stiff in the second innings, and Ross Taylor - despite a shortage of test runs recently - is in for the long haul.

James Franklin, unlucky in the first innings, out to a dreadful shot in the second, looks too high at No 6 - and the giant frame of Oram is hovering over his old job again.

Of the fast-medium candidates, Kyle Mills is most vulnerable after a disappointing test, down on pace and low on containment at times.

Unless the selectors go for a wildcard, the obvious alternative is Tim Southee, who bagged five Canterbury wickets for Northern Districts in the first innings of the game after his century mauling in the Christchurch ODI last month.

He swings the ball, got five wickets on debut against England in Napier last summer and gets top-order batsmen out.

But if spin is in, that means either Patel, who took five wickets for Wellington against Otago on Friday and got five against the West Indies in the last test on McLean Park in December, or Otago's Nathan McCullum, a tighter option.

Patel has the inside running, but another longer shot contender put his hand up at Eden Park yesterday.

Northern Districts' allrounder Kane Williamson hit 111 and 95 against Auckland, and he's a tidy offspinner. The national under-19 captain is a favourite of both Moles and at least one of the national selectors, who view him as a 'when' not 'if' test player.

His time might not yet have come, but it's not far away.

There are injury niggles over fast-medium Iain O'Brien (side strain) and batsman Daniel Flynn (bruised hand), and that means cover is expected to be named in the squad today.

Whoever they settle on, Moles was emphatic yesterday that things would get better.

"I can promise you the Indians will face a lot sterner examination than they did in the first test," he said, with one of those quotes he'll hope doesn't return to bite him.