If Ben Stokes’ side manage a win at the Basin Reserve this time around, they will become the first England team to take a Test series in this country since 2008.
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Fast start, slow finish
A remarkable statistic of England’s Bazball era is their record in the first Test of away series. They have won all five of them: two in Pakistan, one in India and now two in New Zealand. It is all the more eyebrow-raising given England don’t really bother with warm-up matches.
Following those four previous opening-Test wins, England have gone on to win one series, the first of them in Pakistan two years ago.
There is context around the three series they failed to win. They missed out here in early 2023 because of that all-timer in Wellington, then lost in India and Pakistan this year in unfamiliar Asian conditions.
The theory goes that England can be an easy side for opposition to adapt to. Stokes’ men can sometimes be a little one-note – ultra-aggressive with the bat, and impatient in their hunt for wickets with the ball. Stokes himself even admitted on Wednesday he is capable of setting six different fields in a single over.
If a team can frustrate England’s batters or, even better, challenge them with a moving ball, and then have the patience to ignore captain Stokes’ many traps, there is a route to victory.
New Zealand played into England’s hands in Christchurch. The home side dropped catches and gifted wickets away. If they do the basics better in Wellington, then maybe they can grind England down. If not, then England will turn a first-Test win into an away series triumph.
Coach Brendon McCullum once said it was not Zak Crawley’s job to be a consistent performer at the top of the England order, only for Crawley to become Mr Consistent.
England’s leading run-scorer in the 2023 Ashes, that series began a period where Crawley averaged almost 44 up to when he broke his finger against West Indies in July.
Now Crawley is up against a New Zealand team that gives him the creeps. Scores of nought and one in Christchurch left the Kent man with an average of less than 10 in 17 innings against the Black Caps.