![\"Gilchrist](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/9c1008fe357ea49bdf20e60203bc6c6a7493081a.jpg\")
Camera IconGilchrist and Langer were full of praise for the Black Caps. Credit: Daniel Carson\/Getty Images for Cricket Austral<\/p>\nNew Zealand\u2019s record in Australia might be modest, but they stand every chance of presenting a stern challenge when they tour this summer.<\/p>\n
That is the message from West Australian cricket legends Justin Langer and Adam Gilchrist, who believe the Black Caps are capable of going toe to toe with their all-conquering hosts in their upcoming four-game series.<\/p>\n
Tuesday marked 50 days to go until the Test summer opens at Perth\u2019s Optus Stadium on Wednesday, December 9.<\/p>\n
Since New Zealand managed to draw a series against Australia\u2019s golden generation in 2001, they have won only one of their 12 red-ball games played on the other side of the Tasman Sea.<\/p>\n
But they currently sit at No.3 in the ICC\u2019s Test rankings \u2014 above both fifth-placed England and fourth-placed India, who have visited for high-profile tours in the last two years.<\/p>\n
While reserving a dig for the old enemy, Langer was full of praise for both the skill and the character of the Black Caps.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s hope they compete harder than England did here last year,\u201d Langer said.<\/p>\n
Camera IconGilchrist and Langer were full of praise for the Black Caps. Credit: Daniel Carson\/Getty Images for Cricket Austral<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve got a very good fast bowling attack and they fight hard. They\u2019re always in all the World Cup finals . . . they\u2019ve got some of the best young talent around.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey know, if they can come and beat Australia on our home shores, they have to be regarded as one of the great teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re underdogs in a sense, but they\u2019re always giants in how they go about their business.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gilchrist conceded the series may not have the profile of the Ashes or Border-Gavaskar Trophy, but said he remained \u201creally excited\u201d to see what will unfold across December and January.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew Zealand have achieved something that this playing group \u2014 and this is a generational group of players in the Australian team \u2014 haven\u2019t been able to thus far, and that\u2019s to win in India and to win a series in England,\u201d Gilchrist said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey know they haven\u2019t achieved it here through limited opportunity in Australia, so they\u2019ll be up for the challenge. It\u2019s going to be really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perth will again play host to the first Test of the summer under an agreement between the State Government and Cricket Australia, which is entering its final year.<\/p>\n
And Gilchrist, an adopted Sandgroper who has remained in the State since moving from New South Wales as a 22-year-old to kick-start his career, said he hoped visiting teams being sent to the west to start their tours would become a longtime tradition.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we saw last year in a very quick Test match is very entertaining cricket here at Optus Stadium,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe atmosphere that second day, when Travis Head did what he did \u2014 if we can create that as often as possible, I think there\u2019s the chance to build up a real history and heritage here, and make sure it gives the people of Perth and WA the opportunity to support it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand\u2019s record in Australia might be modest, but they stand every chance of presenting a stern challenge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":934634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,740,44,588],"class_list":["post-934633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-news","tag-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=934633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/934634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=934633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=934633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=934633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}