The South African cricket side might well be on their way to No 1 in the world, but if the Black Caps treat them like that the series is as good as lost, says their most experienced player.
Former captain Daniel Vettori is back with the New Zealand side in Dunedin ahead of tomorrow's first test and said there was no way they were putting the tourists on a pedestal.
They are after all, as Vettori said, just another cricket team.
The Black Caps were armed with huge amounts of self belief when they upset Australia in Hobart last year – without Vettori – and carried that into the one-off Zimbabwe series and regardless of the 3-0 ODI series loss and the 2-1 T20 result, the Black Caps needed to forget that and look to other more positive results for inspiration, Vettori said.
"Yep, there's that series and some more recent ones against some good teams," he said.
"The Australian series, the Pakistan series [last summer] where we played well, and we always play pretty well at home, so I think we take a lot of confidence from that."
Vettori didn't think the spirits of the side needed lifting, but said it was obviously a good thing to have his experience combined with that of Chris Martin and skipper Ross Taylor coming back into the side (207 caps).
Coach John Wright had hinted that Canterbury's Andrew Ellis could be preferred as the all-rounder as he offered more depth to the batting lineup, but Vettori said yesterday the plan was to stick to what worked for them in Hobart and Napier. "I think, from all the talk that we'll probably stick with the team that's done well in the past in terms of the four seamers," he said.
Rob Nicol is a certainty to make his test debut at No 5 replacing the injured Dean Brownlie.
The South Africans look likely to stick with their trio of pace bowlers who played the majority of the home summer for them.
That means no place for the impressive Marchant de Lange as Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel will be joined by Vernon Philander.
Jacques Kallis will, as always, prove a more than handy accomplice and the Pakistan-born legspinner Imran Tahir will also play, according to coach Gary Kirsten.
Meanwhile, Central Districts wicketkeeper-batsman Kruger van Wyk joined the Black Caps last night as a precautionary measure. Incumbent keeper BJ Watling has a "hip irritation", according to New Zealand Cricket, and they will assess him this morning before making a decision on which South African born keeper-batsman they chose.
Watling took a full part in training yesterday as well as a short fitness test by Black Caps physio Paul Close.
It is understood Close and the Black Caps management are waiting until this morning to see how Watling backs up from yesterday's training session.
Source:http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/cricket/6527761/Experience-crucial-for-test-cricket-says-Vettori
No comments:
Post a Comment