BLACKCAPS Hosting Sri Lanka - Home Soil
Chew that strap Guppy, well nah don't, just score some runs.
It's been a while since we've seen our BLACKCAPS Test team toil away for five days in the whites in Aotearoa and we won't get too much of it this summer as New Zealand Cricket opts for more limited overs cricket. I mean we only get two Tests against Sri Lanka, hardly a healthy dose of the game we love.
During the time in which we've watched the BLACKCAPS on tour, we have seen them battle hard but fall short against England and more recently get served a reality check from Australia. Both Test tours contained many positives, especially as these positives came away from home and as kiwi cricket fans we're all fairly happy with the growth of the BLACKCAPS (considering where they have come from). Both Test tours however also saw the BLACKCAPS fall short; sure the 1-1 series draw in England was nice yet the BLACKCAPS could have very easily have been 1-0 up after the first Test.
While it's good to see the BLACKCAPS show improvement, to establish themselves as a Test cricket powerhouse they need to start getting results away from home. Part of being a Test cricket powerhouse is also defending your home soil with a touch of ruthlessness, the sort of ruthlessness that we have seen India show against South Africa, or that England displayed to win the Ashes, or that Australia served up a week or two ago.
Every time the BLACKCAPS host a team in Aotearoa, we must expect Test wins and series wins. Anything less than that can only be viewed as unacceptable if the BLACKCAPS want to be considered a top-3 Test team and Sri Lanka are now the team who will look to upset the kiwis on home soil.
There aren't too many issues regarding the BLACKCAPS (for once) with the only real talking points being the emergence of Mitchell Santner and the relative struggles of Martin Guptill and Tom Latham. Santner could be rolled out as the only spinner for the BLACKCAPS, thus opening up a space for another seamer like Neil Wagner which would be exciting as it would showcase a different dimension to this BLACKCAPS team.
The struggles of the openers aren't too much of a worry given how horrible our opening situation has been over the past 15 years. Guptill has certainly struggled, yet like Latham, he deserves to be persisted with until it's simply not feasible to carry him as the Test opener ... or until there is another opener who puts enough pressure on Guptill that they demand selection.
You would expect home conditions and a bowling attack that is certainly weaker than that of Australia's will help Guptill and Latham find some runs, or more importantly big runs. It's hard to expect what will happen with Santner and subsequently Mark Craig as the off-spinner also deserves the right of reply to Santner's challenge for the top spinning berth. Working against Craig is the funky balance that Santner offers this BLACKCAPS team, especially on home soil where the seamers tend to enjoy the nibbling conditions.
There's also the low key form of Brendon McCullum to keep an eye on. The skipper only passed 30 once through five innings' in Australia (a swift 80) and simply isn't playing his part in what should be a strong middle-order starting with Kane Williamson and ending with BJ Watling ... Watling who could only register a top score of 32 in Australia. Suddenly the runs and grit, which formed a safety net behind our best batsmen isn't quite there and we need it back.
I'm also going to be interested to see which seamer performs the best on home soil after Tim Southee, Trent Boult and Doug Bracewell all enjoyed various levels of success in Australia. I've got this as a little competition between these three and Neil Wagner if he gets a run, it's better to have three or four bowlers operating at a high level as opposed to just Southee and Boult.
Sri Lanka/any opposition should never be underestimated but this shouldn't see our expectations of the BLACKCAPS slip. Nothing but a series win is the goal and the BLACKCAPS need to show the ruthlessness of recent home summers to maintain their position as the up and coming Test team to watch out for.