If England are anxious for Andrew Flintoff to rejoin their team, imagine how
much more desperate New Zealand must be for their own towering allrounder to
put his stress-related injuries behind him and be fit for service at Lord’s.
On song, Jacob Oram is, like Flintoff, his country’s most dependable bowler.
Unlike Flintoff, Oram can still hope to return to action on Thursday week in
his traditional batting spot of No 6.
Had Oram not missed the deciding Test in Napier in March, England might not
have recovered from four for three on the first morning to sneak a 2-1
series victory. In two earlier games, England had found him so difficult to
score off that 31 of his 74 overs were maidens. Compare that with
man-of-the-series Ryan Sidebottom, who sent down only three more maidens in
67 more overs.
Oram’s plight has been much the same as Flintoff’s; his excellence contributed
to his downfall. Against England, Oram simply bowled too well to be taken
off and in the end his left hip screamed in pain. Something similar happened
in South Africa before Christmas, when his left hamstring went, putting him
out of the final Test (as in Napier, New Zealand lost without him). He has
missed 10 of New Zealand’s past 22 Tests.
“It’s been very tough for me to handle,” Oram said as he prepared for his
first match of the tour in Chelmsford after arriving from the Indian Premier
League (IPL). “I have had too many injuries. They are all wear-and-tear ones
. . . stress-related, all left side of the body. I am well over 100kg [15st
10lb] and they reckon eight times your body weight goes through your landing
leg when you bowl. That’s a fair bit of pressure.
“I’ve got massive respect for Andrew. He bowls so fast. I’m a similar stature,
yet he’s got around 20kph [12½mph] on me. He’s had a bad run with injuries
too.”
The England captain, Michael Vaughan, and coach Peter Moores have indicated
that they favour playing Flintoff in a four-man bowling attack at Lord’s.
This would be a significant change: Flintoff has played below six specialist
batsmen only four times in his 67 Tests. With Stuart Broad at No 9, England
would be taking a sledgehammer to cull a Kiwi.
Such a shift would also suggest that England are judging players on form
rather than past deeds, as they did in dropping Matthew Hoggard and Steve
Harmison. Asked how miffed Flintoff might be to bat at No 7, Moores said:
“To me, if we feel that’s the best shape, that is out of the player’s hands.
We’ve got a settled shape, which is six batters, and I can’t see that
changing straight away. Our top six are proven over time.”
Oram, meanwhile, can expect to bat at six unless New Zealand are keen to bat
their IPL hero Brendon McCullum higher than his customary seven (he batted
at No 3 in all three Tests here in 2004, scoring 96 at Lord’s). There are
whispers that he fancies giving up the gauntlets to concentrate on batting,
but publicly he says the time has not yet come.
Before his latest injury, Oram feels he was bowling as well as he had in
several years. “I’d had three good months when I had stayed on the park,” he
said. “I had found a good rhythm and felt I was bowling at a pace I could
handle, but it’s a fine balancing act, and in hindsight we got it wrong.
“What we learnt is that for me to bowl so many overs in two weeks is too much.
My body said, ‘No, I’m not doing this any more’. There is a ceiling as to
how much I can bowl, and that ceiling seems to be getting closer and closer
to the ground. I haven’t got a set number of overs in my mind as to what is
okay. Maybe I just have to get more selfish and say to Daniel [Vettori] in
the heat of battle when I’m going well, ‘I’ve got to have a rest - can
someone else bowl?’ ” Oram will appreciate the eight-day gap between the
second and third Tests. He was over his hip trouble in time to bowl his full
quota of overs in his four games for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL and left
India with nothing more serious than a bruised ego. His overall economy rate
was high (9.3) but he finished strongly in his final game in Bangalore.
England might do well to be more mindful of his economy rate in Tests. At 2.4,
it is the best among leading New Zealand bowlers of the past 20 years and
superior to that of Sir Richard Hadlee. At 6ft 6in, Oram might be considered
a stretch version of the limousine of fast bowlers.
He got few opportunities with the bat in India, but believes the whole
experience was advantageous. “Sitting in the changing room alongside Matt
Hayden, Mike Hussey, Muttiah Muralitharan and Makhaya Ntini and chewing the
fat with them about the opposition and your own techniques and tactics was
pretty cool,” he said. “I’d be bowling in the nets to Hayden and he’d stop
and ask, ‘Why are you bowling here? Where are you looking to put your
field?’ Even training with these guys, you know you have got to train as
hard as you can, otherwise you might embarrass yourself.
“I can’t see a downside to playing IPL. Twenty20 seems to be here to stay. In
New Zealand we’re getting crowds that dwarf those for 50-over and four-day
cricket. The more I play it, the more I’m liking it. I’ve realised it’s a
tactical game, not just a hit-and-miss giggle.”
The three England-New Zealand Tests will be the first played since the launch
of the IPL. McCullum, the New Zealand vice-captain and star of Kolkata
Knight Riders, believes that Test cricket will feel Twenty20’s influence for
good and bad. “Twenty20 will enhance the quality of Test cricket,” he said.
“I can’t ever imagine Test cricket dying, it has got so much tradition
behind it. In countries such as England it will remain strong, but New
Zealand may have to look at ways of keeping it alive.”
New Zealand can afford to be without Oram even less than when they faced
England at home, because Stephen Fleming has joined several other
experienced players in retirement, and Matthew Bell and Matthew Sinclair
have been left behind. Much of the batting here is untested. They need the
sun to shine and the ball not to swing.
Does Oram think that they can cope? “We’ll find out at Lord’s,” he said. “It’s
going to be a massive test. Ross Taylor has played only a few Tests [five,
with an average of 35.4], yet he will be our senior middle-order batsman. We
can look at it as daunting or as an adventure. It could be damned rocky, but
a year or two from now we might feel the benefits. Senior guys like myself
are going to have to step up our games.
“New Zealand cricket tends to go up and down. We have some rough periods, then
hit a golden patch. Cricket remains very popular in our country and our
domestic cricket is a lot more professional than it was.”
Can he physically survive this two-month tour? “Yes. I had three weeks between
my last match in New Zealand and the IPL and now I have 17 days between
India and Lord’s. That gives me a nice flow into the first Test. After the
tour it will be time for a rest. I’ve talked to counties before about
playing in England, but not this summer. Mike Hussey said he learnt so much
playing day in, day out in England.”
Would he come if he was just being asked to play Twenty20s? “Definitely. To
play four-dayers and one-dayers is a massive ask, but Twenty20 is a smaller
workload.”
Since their last tour here New Zealand have been starved of decent touring
opportunities, playing only seven Tests overseas against pukka opposition
(losing six and drawing one). Without Flintoff, England can still win;
without Oram, New Zealand are scuppered.
