Tim Southee confident about NZ’s bowling resources with regards to its depth as well as the variety of it against SL.
Tim Southee is happy and pleased with the bowling stocks at his disposal ahead of tomorrow’s test vs Sri Lanka.
Despite not having played a Test since March, New Zealand won’t have much time to catch up. After their two-Test series against Sri Lanka in September, they will tour India for three Tests in October and November before returning home to host three more Tests against England in November and December.
The World Test Championship cycle will be completed by all eight of these matches, and New Zealand will probably need to win five of them in order to have a chance of advancing to the final at Lord’s.
“We’ve had a bit of a break from Test cricket since the end of our home summer and now we’ve got an important part in terms of the Test championship cycle,” Southee said on the eve of the first Test in Galle. “We’ve got eight games between now and December, so it’s an exciting times for us as a Test side and tough times ahead of us – here in Sri Lanka obviously, India in India and then England at home.
“Yeah it was disappointing [not to play against Afghanistan] but we still spent a week [in India] which we got some positives out of. We got some training in, some great training here. We spent some time together as a Test side – been a while since we’ve been together – so to have that time, and bonding over that time in India was important as well.”
Nonetheless, New Zealand’s strength is more in their diversity of approach and capacity for conditional adaptation than in their level of expertise. In addition to Ajaz Patel and Mitchell Santner, other top spin alternatives include Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Phillips, and Michael Bracewell. Then, in addition to Southee, seam variations are provided by players like Matt Henry, Ben Sears, and Will O’Rourke.
“I think historically here, Galle in particular, spin has played a pretty big part,” Southee said. “But as pace bowlers if you can come here and do well, that’s a tough challenge but a very rewarding challenge.
“You look at the balance of squad, we’ve got specialist spinners, we’ve got guys at the top of the order that can offer spin options, as well as four quality seam bowlers that offer different options as well. I think we have a number of bases set. I guess it’s just figuring out what balance is the right one to go in with in these conditions.