Should James Franklin and Daniel Vettori swap batting spots. So far this season Franklin has scored 251 runs in 21 games at an average of 27.88 while Vettori has 237 from 25 games at 19.75

For me its a no brainer especially when the NZ media keep saying Bracewell picks him ahead of the likes of Martin and Gillespie due to his batting ability.

A Test attack of Martin, Franklin, Mills, Vettori and Oram does certainly have a better ring to it than Martin, Mills and O'Brien, and it would strengthen up the tail a bit. But his ODI peformances leave a lot to be desired, and I'd still baulk at labelling hima better all-round bowler than Mills.

Mills is probably a better ODI bowler than Franklin as if Franklin has a bad day, he'll go for plenty. In tests, Franklin's bad balls are less costly and he bowls more wicket taking deliveries than Mills, who, currently doesn't have much to him other than line & length (i.e. not enough seam or swing movement to account for good test batsmen).

Franklin is a better batsman than Mills to my mind. He even has a test century, away in South Africa to his name.

I tend to agree with Andy here in terms of Mills v Franklin.

A lot of it though comes down to the amount of each type of cricket the two have played. Franklins played far more tests so he's more experienced in what it takes in that format whereas Mills is a one day specialist.

Mills will get to show in the coming england series what he's capable of in tests and maybe then its easier to compare the to.

I think Franklin is a better bat than Mills who tends to slog more.

jaz wrote:Mills is probably a better ODI bowler than Franklin as if Franklin has a bad day, he'll go for plenty. In tests, Franklin's bad balls are less costly and he bowls more wicket taking deliveries than Mills, who, currently doesn't have much to him other than line & length (i.e. not enough seam or swing movement to account for good test batsmen).

Franklin is a better batsman than Mills to my mind. He even has a test century, away in South Africa to his name.

Agreed, they would both go in my test and ODI team when fit, simply for the fact franklin offers variety and bowls wicket taking deliveries, like you stated. Best attack they would possess is Franklin, Mills, Martin + Vettori (with Oram/Styris etc).

His batting offers depth but the whole right medium fast phase at the moment, Mason, Gillespie, Mills, O'Brien, Hitchcock?! etc...very 1 dimensional and predictable, even stick Oram in that fold, although hes an all rounder who's economical 9/10.

Remember when they lost in SA a couple years ago (maybe the series where he got that maiden ton) he bowled a cracking delivery to beat the defences of Kallis over the wicket, he does that more often and stays injury free then hes a key part to this bowling attack, now Bond-less. Hope hes available for the summer tour to England as the swinging ball should do him the world of good.