England will take an unchanged team into their series decider against New Zealand, with one look at the grassy Basin Reserve pitch enough to relieve their bowling attack of any aches and pains.
With last week’s 267-run victory in Mount Maunganui, changing up the seamers was a possibility because Stuart Broad, James Anderson, and Ollie Robinson were sore from their exertions at Bay Oval.
Durham’s Matthew Potts and Nottinghamshire’s Olly Stone were on hand to come in if required but, after assessing a lush green surface on Wednesday, the men in possession were not even contemplating a rest in Wellington.
“It was just a case of seeing how the bowlers pulled up,” said captain Ben Stokes. “Especially after seeing the pitch, they’ve pulled up very well.
There is a lot of grass outside, and it appears like the outfield wicket lines have been painted. The bowlers’ lips were being licked. Perhaps stiff yesterday, they felt a little bit looser after taking in the pitch.
They didn’t train today, so I emailed all three of them to ask whether they were ready for the game, and they just replied “yes.” It’s fairly easy.
And nobody knows how well the ground can play better than England’s head coach Brendon McCullum, who made a career-best 302 against India here in 2014.
Stokes said: “You can’t read too much into that, pitches here can offer a lot for the seamers but we’ve also heard from Baz that it can sometimes play into the favour of the batters.
“In our changing room we have the honours board for batters and bowlers. You can see people have taken five for six wickets but also gone for a few runs. There’s also people on the board who have scored massive hundreds.”
Anderson will lead the England attack having returned to top spot in the International Cricket Council’s bowling rankings at the age of 40, the oldest player to hit number one since Clarrie Grimmett in 1936.
The Lancastrian’s seven-wicket haul in the first Test saw him replace Australia captain Pat Cummins after a four-year stint at the summit, yet another distinction for a player with more dismissals than any other pace bowler in the history of the game.
source from: msn.com
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