Cricket: Test stats tell a grim story

Jesse Ryder is the potential long-term batting hero. Photo / Hawkes Bay Today

New Zealand's six-month test journey began in steamy Chittagong and ended in wet and windy Wellington this week.

The bare bones of New Zealand's nine-test campaign aren't impressive: nine matches in Bangladesh, Australia and at home against the West Indies and India produced a solitary win, in Chittagong - which could easily have been lost but for heroics from the captain, Dan Vettori - three defeats and five draws.

The trek took many conditions, with the opposition a mixture from the average to the outstanding.

It used 19 players. Five played in all nine tests - Vettori, batsmen Jesse Ryder and Ross Taylor, wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum and seamer Iain O'Brien. That raises one point. In a country this size, are there 19 test-quality cricketers?

There was a significant change in off-field structure.

Coach John Bracewell stepped away after four of the nine tests, the trips to Bangladesh and Australia.

With him went his support staff and, eventually, manager Lindsay Crocker after a sloppily handled changeover by New Zealand Cricket.

Bracewell's replacement, Andy Moles, needed time to bed himself, his structures and philosophies in. Now he's had it, so the microscope will be on him and his operation when New Zealand arrive in England in June for the world Twenty20 championship.

But what of the test summer? Some questions were answered - ie, giant strides made by Ryder, the potential long-term batting hero - others remain clouded in doubt.

Such as? Try the openers for a start.

Four had a chance in the test programme: Jamie How, Aaron Redmond, Tim McIntosh and Martin Guptill.

Yet out of 17 partnerships, New Zealand's openers averaged just 20, and managed to reach 50 only once.

Purely in terms of averages, Redmond was the most successful, yet played probably the most inappropriate shot of the summer, second ball of the day in Adelaide as New Zealand were trying to save a test. That cost him his place, and, possibly, his test career. The numbers suggest he's worth reconsidering.

How hit a solitary half century but was out of sorts otherwise, McIntosh hit a century in his third innings but suffered bad luck, allied to ordinary footwork, against the Indians; Guptill is a forthright strokemaker and looks promising. He is a strong hooker, but his dismissal at Napier to the excellent Zaheer Khan - trying to avoid a short ball and getting in a tangle - will have been telegraphed around the worldwide fast bowling union to be put under the For Future Reference file.

The middle order is a mix. Taylor and Ryder are locked in - Ryder the player of the summer. But either side of the former Central Districts age grade teammates there are issues.

Daniel Flynn had eight tests but was patchy.

His fighting qualities were eye-catching, but he was hot and cold. James Franklin doesn't appeal as a long-term No 6. So what of Jacob Oram, who played only the first test of the season and disappeared battling various injuries?

He's back for the world Twenty20, assuming he's fit, but there has to be a question mark over how long he'll be around, certainly at test level. The bowling relied on three players: Chris Martin, O'Brien and Dan Vettori.

Martin justified his recall for the Indian series with 14 wickets and remains, at 34, the country's best new ball operator.

Hard-working O'Brien is thriving, his 32 wickets at 30 apiece a good reward for a solid summer.

Vettori struggled to make an impression on the Indian batsmen, tight and demanding, yes, but seven wickets in 137 overs is an ordinary return for a bowler of his class.

Next summer is still to be inked in. However, after two tests in Sri Lanka in July-August, it is likely to comprise two tests against Pakistan - venue unconfirmed but possibly in New Zealand - two against Bangladesh at home before the main course, three against Australia at home in March.

The selectors, coach and management have plenty to get their teeth into in the coming weeks.