Bangalore, October 19: New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori said Brendon McCullum will continue to open the innings during the ODI series against Pakistan because of the absence of Jesse Ryder.
Having said that, Vettori mentioned that he was keen to play McCullum down the order in the future so that he could exploit the batting Powerplay.
“The way the game is going, it has become more important to have a guy down the order who can finish your innings off. We’ve fallen over a few times recently in the late stages so that’s maybe an option for later in the summer but, at the moment, Brendon’s got the opportunity to open against Pakistan,” Vettori was quoted as saying in the Herald.
Vettori said McCullum was keen to open since it gave him lot more chances to score and win games. “He sees opening as the opportunity to win games for your team 10 out of every 10 times you bat, whereas when you’re batting down the order you don’t get that many opportunities.”
“The other thing is that if you look at his record as an opener, it is pretty good. Where the criticism is, that he hasn’t turned enough of his starts into centuries and really big scores,” Vettori said.
Vettori, who now is also involved in selection matters, said “I guess the first thing I’ve got to point out is that I was just one of four guys on the panel.There was plenty of debate about whether we went with six batsmen or look to fill the position with another allrounder and I was part of the discussions. In that case you’ve got to remove your personality, or ego, from the argument, but at the same time recognise that my view on it needed to be heard.”
Vettori hoped for Ryder’s return for the home Test series against Pakistan so that he could fill in as an extra bowler following Oram’s decision to retire from Test cricket.
“If he’s [Ryder] fit, then he can play that extra bowler role, with back-up perhaps from someone like Grant Elliott,” Vettori said.
—–Agencies