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England lost Zak Crawley, Jacob Bethell and Joe Root cheaply to reach lunch on 45-3 after finally bowling out New Zealand for 348 on the second day of the first test at Christchurch's Hagley Oval on Friday.
England captain Ben Stokes won the toss and elected to bowl first in the opening match of a three-test series against New Zealand at Christchurch's Hagley Oval on Thursday.
New Zealand put their historic 3-0 series win in India behind them Wednesday as they selected pace bowler Nathan Smith to make his debut against England in the first Test. The 26-year-old Smith will start his Test career on the seam-friendly Hagley Oval pitch in Christchurch, far removed from the Indian playing surfaces where spin dominated. New Zealand captain Tom Latham confirmed that a fit-again Kane Williamson would return for the Test beginning Thursday, meaning there was no room in the batting line-up for Will Young, who was the player-of-the-series in India.
Former New Zealand captain Tim Southee said Friday the team's upcoming Test series with England would be his last, with the 35-year-old set to finish up at his home ground in Hamilton. The irrepressible seam bowler made his debut against England at Napier in 2008 and has been a mainstay since, taking 385 wickets in his 104 Tests -- second only to Richard Hadlee (431) among New Zealanders. "Representing New Zealand was all I ever dreamed of growing up," Southee said.
Prolific batsman Kane Williamson was Friday included in New Zealand's Test squad to face England after missing their recent 3-0 sweep in India with a groin injury. The former skipper will once again team up with veteran seamer Tim Southee, who will retire from Test cricket after the three match-series starting in Christchurch on November 28. Williamson is New Zealand's greatest Test run-scorer with 8,881 runs from 102 matches at an average of 54.48.
New Zealand paceman Tim Southee is eyeing the third test against England as his swan song in the format but will make himself available for selection if the Black Caps make the World Test Championship (WTC) final next year.
Former batter-turned-coach Craig Cumming feels that Tom Latham's captaincy was one of the driving forces behind New Zealand's first-ever Test series win in India, snapping the hosts home streak of 18 straight series triumphs since a 2-1 loss to England in 2012. With their historic win, New Zealand also became the first team to inflict a series sweep on India in their home for the first time since South Africa's 2-0 win in 1999/2000 and overall the fourth side to whitewash India in a series of 3 or more Tests after England, Australia and the West Indies.
New Zealand's (NZ) historic 3-0 series whitewash against India has been met with high praise, particularly for the leadership of new captain Tom Latham. Former New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond commended Latham's captaincy, crediting both his individual performance and the foundation laid by former captain Tim Southee. "Great start to your captaincy reign! I think you've got to pay some credit to Tim Southee, who was magnanimous enough to step down and say, 'look, it's someone else's time', and Tom would have reaped the rewards of a lot of the work that Tim's done over the last few years. But I know Latham's a very good captain, good man, and good leader. I thought the innings he played in the Pune Test was the best innings I've seen him play, leading from the front," Bond said, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.