Big picture: Back to Baz-ics?
How on earth do you follow that?
As a consequence, it may be back to Baz-ics for Bazball over the next month or so. It would be deeply disrespectful to describe this three-Test stop-over as a rest cure – New Zealand’s proud home record would have seen to that, even before taking last month’s astonishing exploits into account – but there’s arguably nowhere on earth that this particular England team would rather be right now.
From the conditions, to the culture, to the unavoidable anonymity of a tour that takes place on the other side of the world and then some, a series in New Zealand leans into the more permissive aspects of England’s current regime. It’s a chance to walk the talk with fewer consequences than you might find elsewhere – not least in the backyard of those noisier trans-Tasman neighbours who are awaiting for 12 months hence – and to revisit the principles that ruled the roost back in 2022, when the stress of the international treadmill first invited the belief that there must be a better way.
Stokes himself arrived in Christchurch early to catch up with his extended family, having conceded that the Pakistan trip was one of the hardest of his career, while Brendon McCullum is back in his fiefdom too: even his famously unflappable persona could benefit from a reset, as he seeks to turn that serenity back onto England’s somewhat battered foundations.
That said, England could and perhaps should have won 2-0 at a canter on their last trip – the enforcing of an unnecessary follow-on at Wellington, and the subsequent unfurling of Kane Williamson’s finest form, saw to that. But that result was one of many lackadaisical moments that have left England distant stragglers in the race for the World Test Championship final. By contrast New Zealand, inaugural champions in 2021, are most definitely back in the hunt. Another 3-0 series win would propel them ever deeper into the mix. And if that might, on the face of it, seem a tall ask, it’s nothing compared to the triumph they’ve only just secured.
Form guide
New Zealand WWWLL (last five Tests, most recent first)
England LLWLW
In the spotlight – Jacob Bethell and Kane Williamson
Team news: Williamson returns, Pope takes England’s gloves
New Zealand: (possible) 1 Tom Latham (capt), 2 Devon Conway, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Rachin Ravindra, 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 Tom Blundell (wk), 7 Glenn Phillips, 8 Nathan Smith, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Matt Henry, 11 William O’Rourke
England: 1 Zak Crawley, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Jacob Bethell, 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Ollie Pope (wk), 7 Ben Stokes (capt), 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Gus Atkinson, 10 Brydon Carse, 11 Shoaib Bashir
Pitch and conditions: Seamers to the fore
It looks a green meanie at the moment, though New Zealand’s pitches have a tendency to be misleading, with the livid grass at the toss rarely lasting much beyond the first session. However, there’s been overnight rain in Christchurch to keep the conditions fresh, and neither side anticipates spin being a major factor.
Stats and trivia
- New Zealand have won nine and lost three of their previous 13 Tests at Hagley Oval, Christchurch, with a solitary draw in their only Test against England at the venue, in 2018.
- Aside from their familiar weak spot against Australia, whom they haven’t beaten in their own conditions since 1993, New Zealand’s home series record is formidable, with ten wins and three draws in 13 non-Australia campaigns since 2017.
- This, however, is their first three-Test home series since that 1-0 loss to South Africa in 2017.
- England have not won a Test series in New Zealand in four attempts since 2007-08, when the soon-to-be-retired Tim Southee debuted in the third Test.
- Southee needs a total of seven sixes in a maximum of three Tests to reach 100 in the format, a tally exceeded among New Zealanders by only Brendon McCullum.
- Joe Root will be playing his 150th Test.
Quotes
“I think we do know what we’re doing. There is thought and there is process towards it, even if it does raise a few eyebrows. We’re not picking people just to wind people up.”
Ben Stokes, England’s captain, defends Bethell’s impending Test debut despite his lack of first-class record
Andrew Miller is UK editor of ESPNcricinfo. @miller_cricket
