England to keep it short and snappy as they bounce back against Kiwis

The Basin Reserve pitch is unlikely to be lightning quick — and if the groundsman is doing his best by the New Zealand team he will be mollifying it by the hour — but it is bound to be quicker than the surface at Dunedin for the opening Test which can only encourage the tourists’ speed trio. Like the batsmen they have some ground to make up after their endeavours on the South Island where they allowed New Zealand to score much too quickly.

Alastair Cook, England’s captain, could neither confirm nor deny that his bowlers would dig the ball in.

All things considered, however, they probably will.

“Our bowlers have been fantastic over a number of years now,” said Cook. “That’s probably been the hallmark of our success.

“It’s all about building pressure on batters as a unit. We’ve done that well in the past. We didn’t quite get it right in Dunedin — they scored a bit quicker than we’d have liked them to. There were a few too many bad balls.”

The received wisdom is that both sides will field if they win the toss. Indeed, McCullum confirmed as much. Cook, as is his wont, played his cards much closer to his chest, not wishing to second guess the final state of the pitch. Equally the skipper would certainly back his bowlers to make serious inroads on the first day if there is a covering of grass.

For New Zealand, it is not quite so straightforward despite McCullum’s candour. All three of their seam bowlers delivered 35 overs or more in England’s second innings and their bodies have barely had time to recover.

“It was a little bit of a concern, knowing the volume of overs they were getting through in that last day,” McCullum said. “When you’re bowling for a Test win you pull out all stops and those guys, I couldn’t get the ball out of their hands to be honest.

“I was concerned about the bowlers, how they’d pull up, but the last three days they’ve rested and all three are champing at the bit for another crack with the ball.”

Both sides will also be unchanged, another point confirmed by McCullum but not by Cook. England’s first innings in Dunedin may have been a debacle but amends were made in the second when Cook made his 24th Test hundred and his new opening partner, Nick Compton, his first. In any case, in crammed series like this it is virtually impossible to change side on grounds of form since none of the support squad have a chance to find any.

There is a general feeling that England cannot possibly play as badly as they did in the first two innings of the series and that New Zealand will suffer the consequences. If that does not occur then the gap between the teams, nominally ranked second and eighth in the world by the ICC, will have narrowed.

Cook said: “I think we can take some confidence from that fightback last week to get the draw. The first couple of days, we were put under some pressure. Then to respond with the bat, like we did, was excellent from the team.

“That’s twice in two Test matches we’ve had to do that, and to be able to come through those challenges is only good for us as a team.”

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