The Black Caps’ preparations for the first Test against England scheduled to start at Mount Maunganui on Thursday have been hit badly by the weather, with Tom Blundell, Henry Nicholls, Will Young and Blair Tickner yet to join the team.
Blundell is stuck in Wellington and Nicholls is stranded in Christchurch, while Young and Tickner are en route in a car from Hawke’s Bay due to the cancellation of flights.
To make matters worse for a side hoping to overturn an ordinary recent run of results against the high-flying visitors, Matt Henry is still in Christchurch due to the birth of his child and Kyle Jamieson is in doubt due to what 1News understands is a back injury.
As Cyclone Gabrielle continues to linger ominously off the east coast of the upper North Island, three staff members are also yet to join the squad.
Coach Gary Stead told media this afternoon that he had hoped to have an evening training session but he had been advised to fit one in earlier due to the forecast of gale-force winds.
“They were worried that the winds would get up to such a point we wouldn’t be able to train later on,” he said.
Despite it all, and the fact he and his side are up against an England team coached by former Black Caps captain Brendon McCullum that beat New Zealand three-nil in Tests last year – McCullum’s first assignment in his new gig – Stead is remaining relatively optimistic.
“It’s about us sticking to what we do well while still understanding that England will play a very, very aggressive style,” Stead said. “For us it’s putting the ball into good areas – making them hit to areas that we want to hit."
McCullum, alongside New Zealand-born captain Ben Stokes, have turned England around significantly with an aggressive, no-fear style and they will be warm favourites to continue their run despite playing in relatively unfamiliar conditions.
“When you go into Test cricket you have to understand it’s played over five days and sometimes the game up can speed up very quickly, and, in our conditions when the ball generally bounces more than others, things tend to happen quite quickly,” Stead said.
He added: “It’s great what Brendon and Ben have done with this English team. They’ve managed to take a team that was really struggling and turn it into something now which is probably the talking point of world cricket.
“That’s a great way for us to test where we are as well because they’re obviously playing with a great deal of confidence.”
A potential chink in England’s armour could come in the form of the pink Kookaburra ball which will be used for the day/night Test at Bay Oval.
England bowlers Ollie Robinson and Jimmy Anderson both spoke publicly of their dislike for the ball recently – it was used in their recent two-day warm-up game against a New Zealand XI at Seddon Park – saying it required a different approach because it didn’t move as much in the air or off the seam. “Gimmicky”, is how Robinson described the ball.
Asked whether that was something the Black Caps could exploit, Stead replied: “I think we’re always looking for something to exploit if that’s the case. We haven’t played a lot of pink ball Test matches at home ourselves – we’ve only played the one and that was against England at Eden Park… it’s different, we start at different times and I think that brings an element of excitement not just for ourselves but for the crowd as well.”
Despite the weather forecast, Stead was confident of a result in the highly-anticipated Test, saying the Bay Oval “one of the fastest drying grounds in the world”.
He added of New Zealand’s unsuccessful tour of England last May: “What I do remember about those three Tests is that all three of them went into the last day and each team could have won on all three occasions.
“England ended up winning three-nil but there was a lot of good cricket played by both teams.”
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