“Hopefully he can take his place in the starting lineup”. A little bit tacky so it’ll be important to get through that first hour.
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Captain Brendon McCullum denies New Zealand need to ditch their nice-guy persona, but he knows they must get ruthless when it comes to sharpening up their skills.
The 29-year-old has scored hundreds in all three of his innings in the series against the Blacks Caps so far and he finished the day with the most runs ever scored by any batsman on the opening day of a test in Australia.
302 – The second-wicket partnership between Khawaja and Warner is the second-highest at the WACA, only behind Justin Langer and Ricky Ponting’s stand of 327 against Pakistan in 1999.
Hazlewood was close to making way for Siddle but not because of form.
With temperatures in Perth expected to reach mid to high 30s over the weekend, Smith said he was considering shorter rotations for his pace bowlers.
“So it was definitely spoken about. But we think he’s going to do a great job… he bowled really well last time he was here, against the South Africans in the one-dayers”.
“Both teams are now preparing for the second Test, which begins in Perth on Friday, before the series comes to its conclusion with the inaugural day-night Test in Adelaide”.
“For 85 per cent of the time we were pretty poor”, Mascharenhas said.
The only uncertainty regarding Smith’s line-up is who takes the new ball.
All-rounder Mitchell Santner would be a like-for-like replacement for Neesham but McCullum said New Zealand were considering playing four quicks and spinner Mark Craig on what is likely to be a fast and bouncy WACA wicket.
But speaking ahead of the second Test at the WACA Ground, which starts on Friday, Johnson said the thought of retiring is always on his mind.
“But, to be honest, I’m just trying to go out there and play each game and enjoy it…it could be after this game, I might just go, ‘I’m done”, he said.
“It really depends which way it’s going. It remains to be see whether we can do that”.
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The Aussies won the first match of the series in five days at the Gabba, dominating with the bat and able to take seven wickets on the final day to ensure victory. “But they played a few pretty special innings out there as well”.
