It could be the ideal time for Daniel Vettori to step forward and take a stronger hand on what goes on within the dressing room, as well as running the show on the park, writes David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald. With Andy Moles' hands-on approach to coaching, it will be interesting to see how their working relationship pans out.
If Vettori casts his mind back to the latter part of the Trist reign and through the Aberhart years early in this decade, he'll recall Stephen Fleming demanding a greater say in operations. By that stage he felt confident in his abilities, both as the team's leading batsman but also as a captain growing into the job and backing his judgments.
His influence on this New Zealand team is growing. His job is doubly difficult in that bowlers rarely make top captains.
Daniel Flynn's first crack at No. 3 saw him score 95 against West Indies in Dunedin and his knock should come as a relief for New Zealand's struggling top order. One-drop has been a problematic position for New Zealand in the past and in the same paper Leggat looks at examples of players in the past who've graced it, in particular Andrew Jones.
After making his debut in Sri Lanka in 1987, Jones became a highly productive batsman with his own idiosyncratic style. The Australians took potshots at him on his first trip there in late-1987 but Jones did his talking with his bat.
Read Iain O'Brien's take on the first day's play in Dunedin in his cricket blog.
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