New Zealand are at the sixth spot among 10 teams with just two wins in their names from six matches. And, their head coach Gary Stead is confident of giving a tough fight to the opponent.
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New Zealand are all set to play a three-match Test series in England, starting 2nd June. The New Zealand team, who are the World Test Championships in its inaugural season, will try to bounce back after having an indifferent start to their second cycle as well. Currently, they are at the sixth spot among 10 teams with just two wins in their names from six matches. And, their head coach Gary Stead is confident of giving a tough fight to the opponent.
However, New Zealand will play with their full-strength squad, where their captain Kane Williamson returns in full fitness and he will hope to repeat his stunning show of last year with the bat in England too. Meanwhile, 27-year-old bowling all-rounder Kyle Jamieson has been playing a key role for the Kiwis. Since his debut two years back, he has been impressing everyone with his spells.
However, Kyle Jamieson chose not to play in the Indian Premier League and his move was something that has been praised by the head coach Gary Stead.
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“I think it’s a very brave move for someone at Kyle’s age to make but he’s obviously had some experiences there and worked out what he needs as a cricketer. He wants to play obviously all formats for New Zealand if he can but Test cricket being the pinnacle for him is really important for him. I congratulate him for looking after what he thinks he needs to do to play Test cricket, first and foremost,” Gary Stead said to the reporters on Wednesday
Meanwhile, he also said that Ben Stokes’ appointment as England captain will make their Test side more ruthless but New Zealand will give them a tough fight too. Notably, Joe Root has stepped down as the captain of the Test team after England faced defeats in the longer format and his captaincy came under the scanner. Even they have won only 1 match out of their last 17 Test matches as well.
“Look, I imagine that he will bring – there will be an immediate steel to their group,” Stead said. “I think the abrasive way that he plays will probably rub off onto the group as well. What we will be trying to do is make things very, very hard for Ben Stokes as immediately as we can and if we can do that, then hopefully that might nullify the strength of the English. But they are still a quality team. If you look through, there are world-class players throughout that team.”
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On the other hand, Gary Stead is confident of Kane Williamson‘s returning to form and leading the team in the first Test, which will take place at Lord’s. Williamson is currently playing in the Indian Premier League where he is leading SunRisers Hyderabad and they are currently placed fourth in the points table with 10 points.
“He’s going really well. I’ve talked to him regularly, the last week or so. And he’s got no issues at all, training almost completely unrestricted now. (He’s) still just being careful around the overloading side of it. So that means if he has a really big day batting then just making sure he’s not doing too much the next day. That’ll probably be an ongoing thing for the rest of his career that we expect to keep managing,” Gary Stead concluded.
