Limited-overs cricket can help a Test opener, according to Mark Richardson, who feels Tim McIntosh and Jamie How need to get some runs in the one-day format to keep their place in the Test side. He writes in the New Zealand Herald:
Both How and McIntosh will be aware that their scoring areas will differ between test and ODI play and the fear is that should McIntosh play State Shield it will affect his test technique. It will not, it will only help him. McIntosh needs to hold a place in the Aces State Shield team, something he has failed to do and his test status simply should not provide for special treatment. However, with Auckland struggling he may get a run and that will only help him.
In the same paper, Dylan Cleaver is not sure if How at No. 3 and Daniel Flynn at No. 5 do justice to the New Zealand one-day bating line-up? Apart from the fact they stand on different sides of the bat, their styles are too similar.
It is nice to have one guy in the top order who you can have your dashers working around, but two? When those guys see a lot of strike, as How did during the middle overs, it puts a lot of pressure on the Ryders and Taylors to clear the ropes. When Flynn replaced How at the crease it delayed the entry of big-hitting Jacob Oram from the 15th over to the 17th. Given that Oram likes a few sighters before he blasts off, leaving him at No 6 did not make sense.
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