Quite literally, the Blackcaps are about to launch themselves into a new era of cricket. Yes, so Pakistan beat Australia in a recently completed series and in so doing leapfrogged England, Sri Lanka and India to sit 3rd on the Test rankings. Yes the wins were seemingly comprehensive. Yes Pakistan seemed to have resolved their off field issues. Yes Pakistan are very strong at the moment. Yes we should expect our Blackcaps to wilt under the pressure of playing that 3rd ranked test team.
However!!
The Blackcaps in the past year or so have stood up as a test outfit. No longer easy beats on the test floor and willing to mix it with the best of teams. Their form is good, all players that have driven that success will be available AND should any fail, there is adequate backup. Strong indeed!
And here's the rub. Pakistan will go into this series with us on a high. They will be confident, and
seeing it's only us on their "turf" some may say over confident. And that could be their downfall. I think our bowlers as a whole are far better now than the outfit Aussie put out on the field. The quicks are performing and with Craig in good nick, and Sodhi performing well in the recent A game we stand to be a smarter outfit on the field than most test playing nations. And therein lies the key to our success. Australia failed to take wickets. We can and will. I think the Pakistani batsmen that succeeded recently won't be given the luxuries afforded them then.
This will be a very tight series no doubt about it. Pakistan will not whitewash us, nor we them. In the end it will be down to who best capitalises on the opportunities afforded them.
And here is a tasty morsel the Blackcaps can savour. It's possible that if they win the series, they'll jump over India on the rankings!!
No comments:
Post a Comment