The Black Caps have lost 14 of their last 15 completed one-day games. That is hardly encouraging with the World Cup starting in just two weeks. Cricket writer Adrian Seconi has identified five key areas which are letting the national side down.
• ROTATION
Stop the madness. Please.
It did not work for the All Blacks and it is not doing much for the Black Caps. Since when has it been a good idea to shuffle players in and out of the team or up and down the order? Why introduce the policy just weeks out from the World Cup?
Now is not the time to experiment. There are four years between World Cups - that is plenty of time to put players under pressure and find out whether they have what it takes.
Surely, if you want more consistency from players then you have to provide them with the opportunities to succeed. That means showing some faith and sticking with the players longer than a game or two.
It must be awfully confusing with players asked to perform a different role every other game. No wonder the game plan appears about as regular as an 80-year-old on a fibre-free diet.
Rotation smacks of desperation, but then these are desperate times.
• THE GAME PLAN
Seriously, does anyone know what it is? One week James Franklin is opening the bowling for his country, much to the surprise of some of the national selectors. The next week he is a middle-order batsman whose overs are a bonus.
While it keeps things interesting for Franklin, the logic is hard to follow. Clearly, coach John Wright and captain Daniel Vettori, who are responsible for the game plan, have ideas which conflict with the selectors' own thoughts and, in the case of Franklin, with common sense.
Franklin's days of being a threat with the ball in international cricket are long over, even if he does get a bit of early swing.
Give the ball to Hamish Bennett. He has been selected to bowl at the top - not as a change bowler. He is our fastest bowler - bowl him downwind and make the most of his pace.
And what is the game plan with regards to Brendon McCullum? Why is our most destructive batsman batting in the middle order?
• THE TOP ORDER
The top order has been broken since, well, forever. But then along came Brendon McCullum and Jesse Ryder.
Both like to wallop the ball, and maybe there is an argument in splitting the hitting power, especially with fellow opener Martin Guptill in such fine touch.
There is no doubt McCullum is better equipped to drop down the order and shore up a middle order which has lacked punch. But it is commonly accepted that you use your best players at the top of the innings.
It is simple equation - the more overs they face, the more opportunity they have of playing a match-winning innings.
McCullum is one of the few New Zealand players capable of starring on the world stage and the Black Caps need to squeeze the best out of him.
Judging by his recent performances in the series against Pakistan he does not appear happy batting at No 5 or No 6. We have only seen glimpses of his potential and he has looked rusty and uncommitted with the gloves.
It seems the only people satisfied with McCullum batting down the order have been the Pakistan bowlers.
• THE BOWLING ATTACK
Tim Southee. Hamish Bennett. Kyle Mills. James Franklin.
Hardly frightening, right?
Bennett is quick but erratic, Mills crumbles under pressure, Southee is still developing and Franklin is a part-timer at best.
The Black Caps rely heavily on their stock bowlers to restrict the scoring during the middle overs. Daniel Vettori is one of the most miserly bowlers around and his combination with the likes of Scott Styris, Jacob Oram and Nathan McCullum offers some hope.
But those guys are unlikely to rip through a batting line-up in subcontinent conditions.
One-day games tend to be won by batsmen and lost by bowlers. When is comes to losing, this attack has plenty of practice.
• THE TALENT POOL
The reality is, barring the odd change to the personnel here and there, this is basically the best line-up the Black Caps can muster.
There are six major associations to pick the team from and the talent pool is relatively shallow.
Canterbury's Rob Nicol can feel slighted. His domestic one-day record during the past three years compares favourably to Jamie How's record for example. Nicol has been the form batsman this summer with 442 runs at 63.14. He is also a very handy offspinner with 12 wickets at 20.75 and the excellent economy rate of 4.03.
Former internationals Mark Gillespie, Peter Fulton, Neil Broom and Lou Vincent have been tried and discarded but are not that far off the pace.
Gillespie is the leading wicket-taker in the one-day competition with 17 scalps at the healthy average of 19.23, Fulton has been striking the ball well with 382 runs at 54.57, and Vincent and Broom have scored two hundreds.
But that is it. There is no Shane Bond or Martin Crowe going undiscovered.
