Four years to the day after England\u2019s first Test under Brendon McCullum began against New Zealand at Lord\u2019s, the start of a summer when players reached new heights and observers reached for new words to describe them, the latest incarnations of the two teams gathered in St John\u2019s Wood as preparations ramped up for the rematch. Once again the series will begin amid talk of England adopting a fresh approach.<\/p>\n
In 2022 New Zealand batted first in all three games and in all three England chased down testing targets to seal victory. The attacking approach McCullum instigated that summer was embodied most memorably by Jonny Bairstow. In more than a century of Test cricket before that year (not counting the early years of the game, when that kind of data was not gathered) only three English players had scored more than 300 runs in a series at a strike rate above 85. In only four years since another 10 have joined their number, a list topped by Bairstow against the Kiwis in 2022, when he rampaged to 394 runs at a strike rate of 120.12. That figure has been bettered only once, and even then marginally, in cricket history, though the 330 runs at 121.32 banked by Pakistan\u2019s Shahid Afridi against India in 2006 were largely down to his contributions to a pair of high-scoring draws on batting-friendly pitches.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a really memorable series,\u201d McCullum said on Tuesday. \u201cWe had a couple of big run chases and we took them on and we were prepared to fail in the pursuit of victory at that point in time. From where we were when we took over, to us trying to take on those totals and to be able to ultimately chase them down, was huge. Jonny doing what he did and the style of cricket that we played, that was what was required at that point in time.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow what\u2019s required is for us to evolve slightly \u2013 still recognise the identity we want to play with, but to evolve slightly. And I think I\u2019ve identified a lot of those areas, which we\u2019re working on. New Zealand\u2019s a better team than when they came here a few years ago, I think. We know they\u2019re going to do things really well for a long period of time. Our job is to find a way to be able to compete with that style, yet also disrupt it when we\u2019ve earned the right to be able to do so. It\u2019s a fascinating series. Again, two different styles, but we\u2019ll see where we land.\u201d<\/p>\n
England\u2019s post-Ashes reboot means that for the second time in two visits New Zealand arrive with some uncertainty over the approach England are going to take against them. \u201cI don\u2019t know if they\u2019re calling it a [new] version of their play but I think you\u2019re always trying to assess where you\u2019re at as a team and how you get a little bit better. No doubt that\u2019s something they\u2019re thinking about, as we are constantly,\u201d said Kane Williamson, who captained New Zealand in 2022 and is one of nine members of that squad who have returned this year under Tom Latham\u2019s captaincy.<\/p>\n
Kane Williamson, who captained New Zealand in the 2022 series, returns as a squad member this year. Photograph: Ben Whitley\/PA<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re wanting to keep evolving as a side and getting the best out of what you have, amongst the changes that come over time. [In 2022] it was a stark difference, one of the first series where they did change considerably their play, and [there were] three incredible games of cricket and three successful ones for England. So, yeah, it\u2019s difficult. You can\u2019t control what other people do, but it\u2019s about what we do and that\u2019s where our focus will be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last week McCullum spoke about a desire to \u201cfinish the job we started\u201d four years ago. The question as he builds his new England, at the most familiar of Test venues, with a largely familiar team and against familiar opponents \u2013 to the New Zealander most of all \u2013 is what completion may look like.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re trying to build something which is long-term, sustainable and successful, right? Something that outlasts the time that you\u2019re here in the post,\u201d he said. \u201cI went down to Beckenham the other day [where the Lions were playing South Africa A in an unofficial Test]. To see some of that young talent, you know \u2026 They\u2019re the future of English cricket. They\u2019re going to carry this team forward for 15, 16 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur job is to embed an identity, so when they get the opportunity to come in they\u2019re able to allow that talent to flourish on this stage. That\u2019s what you\u2019re trying to build. You\u2019re trying build a team which ultimately is successful, wins the big series, does it with an identity and a style of play, but is also the smartest team in the world when it comes to tactics and implementing those.\u201d The cricket McCullum is encouraging now might be slightly less bold than it was four years ago, but the same cannot be said of his ambitions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four years to the day after England\u2019s first Test under Brendon McCullum began against New Zealand at Lord\u2019s,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-617618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}