Kiwis ponder Flynn promotion

Daniel Flynn could be moved up the order to bat at number three against West Indies

There is no guarantee that Daniel Flynn will occupy the number three spot in the New Zealand batting line-up when they take on West Indies in the opening Test in Dunedin, according to head of selectors Glenn Turner.

So far in his short Test career, Flynn has batted at six in six of his seven matches, the exception being against England at Trent Bridge when he moved up one place.

However, when the team to play the West Indies was announced Flynn’s named followed that of openers Tim McIntosh and Jamie How, with Jesse Ryder, who has filled the number three role since making his debut against Bangladesh, dropping to five.

Turner believes Flynn’s more compact style is better suited to playing higher up the order but says the final decision would be left to new coach Andy Moles and captain Daniel Vettori.

“We had a lot of discussion about this,” Turner said. “We’re obviously conscious of seeing off the new ball and trying to protect our middle-lower order and it’s a question of whether or not we think he (Flynn) can do the job better than Jesse.

“(Ryder) is a natural stroke-player and as a consequence is a little bit looser whereas you find someone like Daniel Flynn is more compact.

“He’s shown that he’s quite a gutsy player and he’s shown that he can be quite organised and compact.

“Ideally we’d like to have a number three who has been there for a while, who is solid and so on. We don’t have that luxury at the moment so we’re having to do the best we can and giving the opportunity to the players that are best equipped to handle it.”

In the short space of time Moles has been in charge he has already signalled a change in approach to that of previous coach John Bracewell, who stepped down at the end of the recent unsuccessful series against Australia.

Jesse Ryder is also back in the running for the much-coveted number three batting spot

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The number of support staff has been reduced, the input of controversial leadership consultancy group Leading Teams has been diluted and there will be a greater onus on players to put in the hard work required to be successful at international level.

It is a change in direction that Turner has welcomed. “There’s been quite a lot of people involved in that process of coming to those conclusions and we are all trying to get on the same page - that’s selectors, coach, captain and back-up staff,” added Turner.

“We are very much in behind that philosophy of reducing the numbers of people and trying to get players to become more self-sufficient.”

He is also an advocate of cricketers spending more time in the nets, rather than what has been the tendency in recent years of conserving players for match day.

“We’re going to up the ante as far as preparation and practice goes,” he said. “We’ve been thinking for some time that the way cricketers generally train, and I’m not just talking in New Zealand, is minimal compared to most other sports.

“When you think about it, a batsman for example, bats for 20 minutes to half an hour in the nets and then they expect to go out and bat for six hours. That’s just not the way to train.

“There are going to be some changes made there and on the bowling side too, which has been less of a problem for us. We need to get our bowlers to bowl more overs. There has been a tendency – and it’s been a worldwide trend – to conserve and as far as we are concerned it’s now ‘use it or lose it’.

“You harden your body up to be more competitive and stronger if you actually increase the amount that you bowl rather than decrease it.”

The hard work starts in earnest tomorrow, when the players - except Jacob Oram, who is playing for Central Districts in their State Championship match against Otago - assemble in Dunedin for their first practice session with Moles.

The first Test starts at University Oval on Thursday.