New Zealand were beyond their historic 3-0 series win in India as they picked Nathan Smith as the pace bowler to make his debut against England in the first Test on Wednesday. The 26-year-old Smith will start his career on Test, on Hagley Oval’s seam-friendly surface in Christchurch, far removed from the Indian playing surfaces where spin was king.
Fit again, Kane Williamson will test for the Test beginning Thursday, confirmed New Zealand captain Tom Latham, which means there is now no room in the batting line-up for Will Young, who was the player-of-the-series in India.
Latham described the India series as “an amazing couple of weeks,” but “that’s in the past.”
Latham said: “We really believed in ourselves, after defeating India’s first home Test series in nearly 2012, as well did winning for the first time on the sub-continent: India having actually hosted a Test series since 2012 and were even beaten at home.”
“As we had played, the approach that we tried to take into that series was: Yes, it was tough, yes, we can do it all around the world, and that builds confidence,” Latham said.
There should also be no shortage of confidence for New Zealand at Hagley Oval. They have won nine Tests and drawn one of the 13 played there on a traditionally very green wicket.
This is after long-serving seamers Trent Boult and Neil Wagner retired, and with Tim Southee struggling for form, 32-year-old Matt Henry has come up to lead the pace attack.
Latham said rookie Smith would complement the seam trio of Henry, Southee and Will O’Rourke.
“He moves the ball both ways in the air and hits the wicket reasonably hard … and he can bat a bit as a bowling all-rounder which certainly helps the balance of the side.”
Squads:
New Zealand: Tom Latham (capt), Devon Conway, Kane Williamson, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell, Glenn Phillips, Nathan Smith, Matt Henry, Tim Southee, Will O’Rourke.
England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jacob Bethell, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ollie Pope, Ben Stokes (capt), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Shoaib Bashir
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