Amidst the T20 carnival going on around the world, it’s time for cricket fans to pull on their white attire and spectate an action-packed red-ball saga between two cricketing giants.
The Three Lions have arrived in the Land of Long White Cloud to challenge the defending World Test Champions for a two-match series in the longest format of cricket. The series opening clash between New Zealand and England will be commencing at the Bay Oval arena of Mount Maunganui from Thursday onwards.
Brendon McCullum who kick-started his coaching tenure with the English side against the Blackcaps is gearing up for his first assignment on home soil as the visiting gaffer. Interestingly, the duo of English captains and coaches are quite acquainted with the conditions in New Zealand which ultimately brightens their chances to conquest another away triumph. The Kiwi red-ball skipper Tim Southee is preparing for his maiden home series since his full-time appointment in December 2022.
Kyle Jamieson was set to make his awaited return to the battlefield after being away from international cricket for more than seven months. Despite bagging for New Zealand XI in the warm-up game, the towering speedster has been ruled out of the entire series owing to a back stress fracture. Team Blackcaps also announced the unavailability of the 31-year-old pacer Matt Henry for the opening clash due to his paternal duties.
England’s 15-player squad features the big names of Stuart Broad, Matthew Potts, and Dan Lawrance who are making their comeback into the national side. Mark Wood will be missed as he has taken a break from this series in order to manage his workload and injury prevention. McCullum is expected to field a bowling attack consisting of three pacers James Anderson, Stuart Broad, and Ollie Robinson to capitalize on the conditions.
What have they done so far?
New Zealand has featured in only two bilateral test series in the last 11 months which indicates that the Kiwis have pretty much sidelined themselves from the longest format of this game. Their Pakistan tour ended in a 0-0 settlement as both of them could not produce results on batting-friendly Karachi pitches.
The Blackcaps came very close to emerging victorious however, bad lights in the opening clash and Pak’s late fightback in the following game caused them to miss out on the historic fest from the shortest distance.
The English middle order shined in the warm-up game
England’s most recent opponents in the red-ball bilaterals were also Pakistan who faced the Three Lions before hosting New Zealand at home. However, the English displayed a dominant show on the Pak soil and handed a whitewashing 3-0 defeat to the Shaheens.
The young Yorkshire batter Harry Brook who won the Player of the Series award against Pakistan has consummated his preparations by smashing 97 off 71 balls in a two-day warm game with NZXI at Hamilton.
Head to Head record
The first bilateral encounter between these two old foes dated back to 1930 when the Blackcaps toured England for an official four-game series and ended up on the losing side on a final scoreline of 0-1. The maiden triumph over the Kiwis triggered the domination pursuit for the Three Lions who remained Invincibles against the Oceanian opponent for the next 48 years.
It took the inaugural World Test champions 54 years to register their maiden series triumph over England but the modern-day era has brought both of them on the same page. They have dominated the poms in the past decade and also registered a hat-trick of series win from 2017 to 2021.
The Three Lions have thoroughly dominated their counterparts in the head-to-head record of matches and bilateral series as well. The two elite test-playing nations have squared off each other 110 times and the head-to-head count fares 51-12 in the favor of the Britishers excluding 48 draw outcomes.
The most recent chapter of this rivalry was staged in June 2022 which also marked the start of the ‘Bazzball’ era for the English Test unit. The Blackcaps turned up for the away challenge with an aim to register the fourth consecutive triumph over the poms however they could not even put up a fight. We witnessed a massive turnaround of the Three Lions who were suffering from the poor form before that series and went on to inflict a whitewashing victory.
Key Players
King Kane got a great start to his post-captaincy Test career
Kane Williamson: It is a special game for the 32-year-old batter hailing from Tauranga who will be playing in front of the home crowd at Bay Oval. In his first very first batting appearance since stepping down from the red-ball captaincy, Kane smashed a double-century in the Karachi Test.
He played a marathon inning of scoring unbeaten 200 runs and had a lion’s share in the Blackcaps’ prowess of posting a humongous total of 612 on the board.
Joe Root: The English batting unit has been heavily criticized for their poor record in foreign conditions hence all eyes will be on the former skipper to lead them by example. The Yorkshire batter was seen in his top form during the warm-up game by setting up a robust 115-run partnership with Harry Brook for the fourth wicket to recover them from an early crisis.
In a one-off Test match he played at this venue, Root managed to fetch only 13 runs from two innings and seems determined to improve it.
Predicted Playing XIs
New Zealand: Tom Latham, Devon Conway, Kane Williamson, Henry Nicholls, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell (wk), Michael Bracewell, Niel Wagner, Blair Tickner, Tim Southee ©, Ajaz Patel
England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes ©, Ben Foakes (wk), Jack Leach, Ollie Robinson, Stuart Broad, James Anderson
Prediction
The hosts, New Zealand are considered favorites to win this contest of Whites as it is always challenging for any touring side to outclass the Kiwis at their home. However, the visitors also cannot be ruled out from the winning equation due to their triumphant recent record in away campaigns.
A lot will depend on how the pace battery of the Three Lions capitalizes on the swinging conditions of New Zealand as it will play a key factor in their contention for the series.