And so it has come to pass.

Lou Vincent will be required to overcome the sadly predictable ineffectiveness of New Zealand's opening partnership on the tour of Australia.

New Zealand was always going to be fighting history on this point, and it has succumbed to that history.

This situation is of no particular joy to anyone.

Last summer when it seemed Mark Richardson and Matthew Bell had provided an answer to New Zealand cricket's open and weeping sore, the opening positions, there was genuine hope that this was going to be a partnership that would genuinely flourish.

It wasn't an instant fix however, and was something that needed to be worked on.

There was no reason why, when the New Zealand team was named to tour Australia, that the pressure the selectors were keen to place on the middle-order by selecting Vincent, could not be extended to the vulnerable opening position.

The selectors decided not to include Matthew Horne and they said at that time that if there were problems at the top of the order, Vincent would be the player asked to do the job.

As stated earlier the situation is of no joy.

It is difficult for the replaced Bell who demanded inclusion in the New Zealand team by virtue of the sheer weight of runs he scored in domestic cricket last year. But with his change of batting stance in the earlier stages of this year's tour and his reversion to the style he used last year for the second Test, he is clearly a player down on his confidence.

His replacement Vincent may have opened the batting at earlier stages in his career, but the point remains that the niche he has carved for himself has been in the middle-order and that is what attracted the national selectors to consider his case.

His selection achieved its aim of putting the pressure on the middle-order, who have generally had a much more consistent series, but it is sad that his Test debut will not be in that comfort zone.

Napoleon's claim that those who forget the lessons of the past are doomed to repeat them are borne out here as yet another tour of Australia throws up the problems experienced by opening batsmen.

While Vincent's competitive nature is such that he could well make a good fist of the job required, and he has had some experience opening, it has not been on a consistent level by comparison with his middle-order batting.

Had Horne been on the tour, perhaps in place of one of the bowlers, the openers might well have felt the pressure of competition for their places with the resultant application competition usually provides.

Now the situation facing the selectors when they return to New Zealand for the National Bank Series against Bangladesh is whether they recall Bell, or give Horne the chance against the lesser Bangladesh attack with a view to ensuring this problem is not a factor in New Zealand's series against England.

© CricInfo