Kiwis were too dependent on Taylor

It was a disappointing end to a stop-start campaign as New Zealand bowed out of the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 without a victory against its name. For the finalist of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, it would have been a bitter pill to swallow, but its Champions Trophy campaign went pretty much the same way as the tri-series in Ireland had done.

In Ireland, one good performance was followed by another notso-good one, and it wasn’t too different in the Champions Trophy. New Zealand probably played its best game against Australia in its opener and was extremely unlucky to be denied the full complement of points by the weather, but I don’t think it was at its best cricket thereafter, evidenced by defeats at the hands of England and then Bangladesh that knocked them out of the competition.

I thought New Zealand played ok, but there was a certain inconsistency that will concern it going forward. No one other than Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor made significant runs on a consistent basis, and when you rely on one or two players to do the running most of the time, it is just not good enough. I thought there was not enough productivity from the middle-order group of Neil Broom, Jimmy Neesham and Corey Anderson and that, more than anything else, is what will cause the creasing of foreheads within the New Zealand camp.

There will be a couple of guys in the team that will be under pressure. It’s not like they are new players, they have been around for four or so years but they didn’t get the job done. You look at the New Zealand team on paper, and there are a lot of players who have played quite a high number of games in tournamentplay before, in ICC events and in World Cups. Everyone expected a bit more from the team, but that wasn’t to be. Once again, Williamson showed how good he is and I thought Taylor batted very well, but you can’t go relying on just two guys. The matches were won and lost in the middle to end overs, when you needed the middle-order to step up and it didn’t.

As New Zealand plans for the World Cup in England in two years’ time, I feel a couple of guys are going to be cut. You look at some of their ages and ask if they will be there in a couple of years’ time.

With the World Cup two years out, New Zealand has to decide on the gaps in the squad and give guys an opportunity to play matches so that by 2019, they are ready for the big stage. I believe it is time New Zealand adds to its squad and gives itself greater options. This usually occurs when you fail in a major competition.