Williamson pointed to New Zealand’s last Test at Bulawayo five years ago for an example of the battle that could await.
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The Kiwis last played a Test in February, though that will not be an issue as a number of their players have been playing different forms of cricket – be it the County Championship or the ongoing 2016 Caribbean Premier League.
Becoming the 29th test cricket captain of New Zealand has been far from Kane Williamson’s mind ahead of the first test against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo.
“We’re certainly going to play in a way that is going to give us the best chance, which is what we do any time that we go out in a test match”.
“Brendon obviously having been a part of the last 101 Test matches for New Zealand, it will be a bit unusual for people tuning in not to see him as part of the Test side”.
The Black Caps are preparing for their first Test series in Zimbabwe since 2011 and are favourites for the two matches given their standing in the world game.
New Zealand has never been beaten by Zimbabwe in a Test and the fifth ranked Black Caps are heavily favoured to keep that record against a team that has limited worldwide competition. “They have been waiting for too long to show how hungry they are”.
Williamson said their focus in on themselves and how they want to play in those conditions. “How “attacking” looks on some of these surfaces may be different, it may not be four slips and two gullies because there might be no point in doing that”. You don’t tend to get the pace and bounce like in other parts of the world which can help bowlers take wickets, but you do have to try and skin it another way, and it is about adapting and thinking on your feet at the time to try and make those quick adjustments and hopefully they go in your favour and you are able to pick up those wickets.
The New Zealand team won’t be named until just before the start of play although leg spinner Ish Sodhi is expected to play after causing the Zimbabwe A batsmen some problems in their warmup game.
Williamson has the benefit of beginning his tenure against Test cricket’s weakest nation, who have not played a Test match since losing 3-0 to Bangladesh in November 2014.
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New Zealand: Kane Williamson (capt), Trent Boult, Doug Bracewell, Mark Craig, Martin Guptill, Matt Henry, Tom Latham, BJ Watling (wk), Henry Nicholls, Jeet Raval, Luke Ronchi, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, Neil Wagner. It is tough to win here, certainly Zimbabwe are well-equipped in these conditions as they are so familiar with them, and we know we have to adapt quickly and be at our best to be competitive and try to get a win.
