Don't miss the two-Test Trans-Tasman Trophy tussle!
Thursday 11 February 2016 09:12, UK
Having concluded their one-day encounters on Monday, New Zealand and Australia will renew rivalries in the Test arena on Friday, in the first game of a two-Test series.
The Black Caps will be aiming to add the Trans-Tasman Trophy - a crown they have been unable to claim since losing to the Baggy Greens in 1993-94 - to the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy they retained by beating their rivals 2-1 in the one-day series.
Australia have dominated their recent five-day tussles with the Kiwis, winning 18 and losing just one of the sides' previous 26 meetings either home or away.
To see if New Zealand can end that hoodoo is reason enough to watch the series live on Sky Sports, but when you chuck in the fact that some of the finest batsmen on the planet will be in action - one of them for the final time - then you'd be mad not to tune in…
Reason #1 - Three of the top-five ranked batsman are on show
Australia captain Steve Smith is at the summit of the Test standings, his rating of 899 placing him 10 points ahead of England's Joe Root and the man he will meet in this series, New Zealand's unflappable No3 - and probable captain -elect, Kane Williamson. Smith's vice-captain, David Warner, meanwhile, is two spots further back, marginally in arrears of South Africa's Hashim Amla.
Smith's stats over the last two years have been sensational, the right-hander averaging more than 81 in nine Tests in 2014 and over 73 in 13 Tests in 2015, with 11 hundreds added into the mix in that time. Williamson racked up 1,172 runs in just eight games in 2015 at an average in excess of 90, while Warner plundered three successive centuries in the reverse series with the Black Caps earlier this winter, taking his career average versus New Zealand to a ludicrous 93.12 from five games.
Reason #2 - McCullum's last stand
Arguably one the modern game's most destructive batsman as well as its most innovative and effective captain, McCullum will quit the international scene after the second Test against Australia, his 101st in a white flannel. Plenty of the 34-year-old's pyrotechnics have come in the limited-over formats - who can forget the way he marmalised England's attack, Steve Finn, in particular, with 77 from 25 balls in the 2015 World Cup? - but his swashbuckling style has also been evident in Tests.
McCullum has played a number of bruising knocks, including 202 from just 188 balls against Pakistan in Sharjah and a staggering 195 from 134 against Sri Lanka in Christchurch, both of those efforts containing a whopping 11 sixes. New Zealand have also prospered under his leadership, playing a breathtaking brand of cricket that England, for one, seem to have followed, with the Black Caps now unbeaten at home since they were pipped by South Africa in 2011-12. McCullum shall be missed.
Reason #3 - You'll see how strong Australia's pace reserves are
Mitchell Johnson is swinging to the left and right no longer in international cricket having retired partway through the home clash with New Zealand, while Mitchell Starc - who bowled close to 100 miles per hour against the Black Caps in Perth in November, as well as taking 13 wickets across the series - is another absentee as he recovers from ankle surgery.
Uncapped Chadd Sayers, a 28-year-old right-armer with 148 first-class scalps in 39 matches and a best of 6-34, has been drafted in to the squad, alongside Jackson Bird and James Pattinson, two players just as familiar with the inside of the treatment room as the cricket pitch following sustained injury sabbaticals. Talented they may be but Australia will probably need the dogged and metronomic Josh Hazlewood and Peter Siddle to do the grunt work.
Reason #4 - The last series was brilliant
The three-Test series on Australian soil a few months back produced some scintillating cricket. Warner biffed centuries in each innings of the opener in Brisbane - becoming only the third batsman to do that on three occasions in a Test, after Sunil Gavaskar and countryman Ricky Ponting - while Joe Burns and the in-form Usman Khawaja nailed maiden Test tons for Australia as the hosts secured a comfortable 208-run triumph, despite Williamson plundering 140.
Game two at the WACA was a drawn run-fest, with Warner blasting a maiden double hundred and New Zealand's Ross Taylor a second, while Williamson, Smith, Khawaja and Australia veteran Adam Voges scored centuries, keeping things interesting for the inaugural day-night Test in Adelaide. Sceptics of the idea were quickly silenced as in front of some beautiful South Australia sunsets, not to mention huge crowds, the Baggy Greens won a thrilling, bowler-dominated encounter by three wickets on the third evening, with Siddle and a limping Starc dragging their side over the line and to a 2-0 series victory.
Watch New Zealand and Australia's Test series on Sky Sports, starting with the opener, in Wellington, from 9.25pm, Thursday, Sky Sports 3.
