3 minute read

What a fascinating chase for the right to be the best in the Tasman as Australia head over the ditch to take on New Zealand.

Check out the Racing And Sports Preview for the two Tests with a few betting ideas at the end.

NEW ZEALAND v AUSTRALIA

1st Test

29 February – 4 March 2024 @ Basin Reserve, Wellington

Who needs enemies with friends like these? That could and should be the approach of both mobs as New Zealand hosts Australia for the first time in Test Cricket since 2016.

First and foremost – why the hell does it take four years for these two to clash and eight years since kiwi land got to hold this meeting?

They should be playing every two years. Bloody Nora it takes three hours to get there. The way Test Cricket is shaping these days, it takes as long to play it as it takes for two short form games anyway.

Contrasting results for the combatants leading into this first game – one totally expected and one utterly unexpected.

New Zealand met a grade side (and that might be being unfair to grade cricket) as South Africa sent the left overs following their home nation prioritisation of the local T-20 league.

Six players debuted in a foregone conclusion. A thrashing was inevitable with some stat-padding for a few. Kane Williamson is always going to be a quality player so he may well have made dual hundreds against the proper Protea attack.

But Rachin Ravindra with 240 helped his average along a fair bit in the first meeting at Mount Maunganui. Perhaps a few others missed out unnecessarily as the gravy train rolled into Hamilton.

In that second test it evened up a little bit. Once more Williamson was the saviour erasing the chance of a few nervous possibilities.

Those Black Caps at least took the tests far more seriously – essentially with the knowledge they had tougher foe coming soon and this was going to be nice centre wicket practice. They picked a proper side and the bowlers gave South Africa no sniff. That will be important come Wellington and Christchurch.

Just prior to that occurring, we saw the unfathomable as one of the great Test moments sprang out of nowhere at The Gabba. The West Indies was pole-axed in Adelaide even though the home side was hardly firing on every cylinder.

But every expectation was Brisbane would just be like hitting Control C, Control V on the keyboard. Rinse and repeat the tone and with the score at 5-64 on the first morning, you had no reason to expect otherwise.

But then Hodge, De Silva and Sinclair with the bat plus the two Josephs with the ball righted a ship that was sinking. The Bermuda Triangle sits just north of the Caribbean nations however the missing vessel that was West Indian cricket surfaced like a nuclear submarine.

Despite some strident efforts from Steve Smith, carrying his bat in his new opening role, the entire story was about Shamar Joseph yet again. He looked for the knackery with a busted toe after being nailed by a Starc toe crusher.

But rising like a phoenix, he returned the next day and claimed another seven scalps. What a beginning to his career and a folklore has begun already.

What it did prove again is this Australian side is highly susceptible to quality bowling (who isn't) but even more to quality high speed attack. Probably a factor based around the age of many of them, their speed of foot movement was again shown up.

Mark Wood in the Ashes did it to them, we've seen Bumrah do same and now Joseph. Those mid-130 seamers are all well and good but that won't put the fear of God up you. Jumping around at 145kph will.

Selectors are going to have to make some very tough decisions in the soon or the now. Warner has gone but with every member of the side the other side of 30, young players are going to need to be tested.

And given the structure of any Australian Domestic Summer now, that is barely applicable. Prioritisation of the BBL leaves no Sheffield Shield for a couple of months. How does any player put their pads forward as a future test player?

What occurs if someone gets injured or loses form completely? This stability is great while all are firing. Imagine if the next Ashes sees them lose the first Test and injuries ensue? Won't be all beer and skittles then!

Time to start tossing in some youngsters even if well before their time. Australia just this month won the U-19 World Cup over India. OK, it's hardly test cricket but the talent must be there at some level for one or two to prosper quickly.

Fast tracking is essential and we don't mean the style of pitches. Then again that wouldn't be a bad thing either.

Before that comes to any fruition, it has been a very long time since an Australian side lost a test to New Zealand over the pond. You have to go back to Auckland in 1993 for that. Ironically that was just before the creation of the genius that was SK Warne and his cataclysmic first ball in Test Cricket in England.

He'd bowled some similar spells in this very New Zealand series but not gotten the rewards or fanfare as what would befall him several months later.

That test was some 31 years ago and yet there are just 10 tests played between these nations on the hallowed kiwi turf. Again … how preposterous.

Australia will be querying its thinking prior to the opening ball at The Basin. In front of a sell-out crowd, there will be calls from the raucous hills for their own version of Bazball. Ironically the very last time they clashed in this country, Christchurch saw it up close and personal.

McCullum made 145 off 79 balls with 21 fours and 6 sixes. The current thinking may have been implanted that very day. Could we see another version?

If I were the home side, I'd want a green seamer, slow and meek and hardly suitable for flowing stroke play. Australian batsmen want some pace on the ball and the current Black Cap side is not laden with anything like Hadlee at his peak or Bond-esque speed.

That said, have the pitch suited to most of the attack, with Matt Henry offering some incisive tempo. Neil Wagner was assumed to be an essential part but announced his retirement on the eve of the series.

That type of deck will also take it from the opposition. Starc and Cummins could become a little more tempered – Hazlewood not so much.

New Zealand has a solid team all around, figuratively led by one of their greatest ever batsman. The official armband is on another.

History would not that often have two bowlers as captains but in Southee and Cummins, it shows it can be done. Their analysing on the run and approach will be great to watch/listen to.

Australia will look upon the potential of a quick look at the middle order if they can get Williamson in the middle then back in his chair. Mind you New Zealand should be thinking the same way about Labuschagne.

One big positive in the last fortnight has been that Cricket Australia held Cameron Green back to get some centre wicket work rather than playing any abbreviated hit and giggle. He repaid that with a long hundred in the Sheffield Shield.

Watch for him to enjoy the benefits of that and the positive mindset it will have provided.

Hopefully, in front of full houses we see some grand attacking cricket and it becomes the portent for these sides to play biennially.