New Zealand’s top order is starting to look as green as the Basin Reserve pitch for the second Test against India, leaving captain Brendon McCullum anxious that he gets it right with the toss for once on Friday.
Two Black Caps will make their Test debut, with batsman Tom Latham, 21, and allrounder James Neesham, 23, replacing Ross Taylor and legspinner Ish Sodhi.
World class batsman Taylor will be sorely missed following a golden home summer. He made the call on Thursday morning to skip the Test and stay home with his wife, who is expecting their second child.
It gives in-form Canterbury opener Latham 24 hours to mentally prepare for a Test where he will bat Taylor’s No.4 slot.
Neesham is fresh from scoring 147 for Otago in a Plunket Shield game against Central Districts and the seamer will provide batting insurance batting at No.8 for New Zealand, who lead the two-Test series 1-0 following the 40-run win in Auckland.
“It’s never ideal to unleash two debutants at the same time. But they’ve both had a fair amount of international cricket to get accustomed to it and I know they’re both very excited about this Test match,” McCullum said.
The hosts will bowl first on the green top if McCullum wins the toss but he isn’t counting on it given his dreadful record of late with the coin. He has lost his last seven tosses in all forms of the game.
New Zealand have responded when sent in on lively tracks this summer – twice against the West Indies and then against the Indians at Eden Park, where they posted 503.
McCullum reckons the recent rain means this challenge will be the biggest yet for his top order – in which 23-year-old Kane Williamson provides the glue at first drop between Latham and out-of-touch opening pair Peter Fulton and Hamish Rutherford.
“We shouldn’t be overawed by it, but we know batting first will be a tough proposition.
“We’ve shown that a big score allows us to dictate the pace of the game and how we want to attack the opposition.”
McCullum says Fulton and Rutherford are victims of the growing propensity for seam-friendly home wickets but their places weren’t under threat for this Test.
“They’re both desperate for runs, we all know that. We’ve got to keep backing those sorts of guys. It’s not a time to be making changes to that top order when we’ve already got a forced change (Latham).”
McCullum says Sodhi’s non-selection was as much to do with the opposition as the pitch. He says the 21-year-old would have played if South Africa or Australia were the opponents.
Williamson’s offspin may be called on while Neesham will operate in tandem will fellow-allrounder Corey Anderson as a fourth seam option, supporting specialists Trent Boult, Tim Southee and Neil Wagner.
