Black Caps coach John Bracewell will resist the temptation to shuffle his batting order, despite criticism that Chris Cairns was being used too little, too late.
Bracewell has the luxury of having genuine batting talent down to No 11 when Kyle Mills occupies that position, but he sees it as
counter-productive to move batters like Cairns and Mills around the order to find quick runs.
"In the style we use at this stage, during a 100-over match, we don't use the pinch-hitting philosophy," Bracewell said.
"We use positional batting. When you've got guys like Cairns, Jacob Oram and Scotty Styris who hit a long ball anyway, and Nathan Astle who has the fastest test double century and 14 one-day international centuries, the need to shift players around is disruptive to a one-day side.
"It is a reasonably patterned game and it is something that we just do not need to introduce at this stage."
Styris, who occupies the No 4 position traditionally reserved for the most fluent stroke-player in the side, was down on form and looked, for the first time in his career, short of confidence against Australia.
But Bracewell said he had no concerns about the Northern Districts allrounder.
"He batted extremely well in some difficult situations in Bangladesh where we were a bit sticky. He batted with intelligence.
"He struggled in Australia, but I've no doubt he'll get that back in our home season.
"Just because a guy's had a few failures in a row it doesn't necessarily mean we've got the depth to dump those guys.
"He is a good player, he has a good record."
Bracewell also pointed to the fact that Styris was an exceptional partnership builder.
- HERALD ON SUNDAY
