New Zealand coach Mike Hesson has told his players to soak up the atmosphere of cricket’s most iconic ground but not to let it distract them in the first Test against England.
Captain Brendon McCullum, Ross Taylor and Tim Southee are the only members of the Hesson’s tour party to have played a Test at Lord’s where the two-match series begins on Thursday.
The coach has sensed anticipation rising among his less experienced players since arriving in London and is happy to encourage that, as long as it doesn’t detract from performance.
“You don’t want to let it fly by without experiencing the moment,” Hesson said.
“There’s certainly a huge level of excitement there. It’ll be a great experience, regardless of the result. But it will be reviewed a lot more fondly if we perform well.”
New Zealand have lost six of the 15 Tests at Lord’s and won once, by nine wickets in 1999.
The most recent Test in 2008 was a rain-affected draw, with McCullum scoring 97 and 24 and Taylor 19 and 20.
Playing just his second Test, Southee took 5-69 in England’s only innings of 319 as they forged a 42-run lead.
Hesson is confident former captain Taylor is primed for a prolific series, having largely struggled with the bat this year following the pair’s well-chronicled breakdown of relations after McCullum’s promotion to skipper.
Taylor scored 35 in last week’s second warm-up match against the England Lions at Leicester, coming off an Indian Premier League stint in which he failed to pass 20 in five innings for the Pune Warriors.
In the drawn three-Test series against England in March, Taylor scored 94 runs at an average of 23.5.
“You get a good delivery every now and then and you miss out but Ross is a quality player,” Hesson said.
“He averages over 40 in Test cricket. He’s our best batsman, he knows the conditions well and I expect him to have a big series.”
Hesson believes his players have enough recent cricket under their belt, even though the Leicester match was severely curtailed by rain.
“We’re fresh, which is good. You can’t have everything.
“Leicester was a little bit shorter than we would have liked but all the bowlers were able to get their loads up and were far better at the end than they were at the start.”