When a two-Test series starts on Thursday with a day-night match at Mount Maunganui, depleted New Zealand, under by new captain Tim Southee, face the daunting prospect of attempting to stop in-form England.
Since Brendon McCullum, a New Zealander, came over as head coach last year, England has won nine out of ten Test matches, with the Black Caps suffering the most under his offensive “Bazball” revolution.
In Southee's first home series as captain, England will be the favorites to defeat Southee's team similarly.
The storm that slammed New Zealand on Tuesday and brought on a state of emergency has interfered with preparations for both teams, but the Test is still scheduled to go place.
With Ben Stokes in command, England handily defeated New Zealand at home in a three-match series in June. The new skipper-coach system made an offensive statement by easily chasing down more than 275 in each of the three Tests.
Stokes, who was born in New Zealand, then guided England to victories against India in a test match and South Africa in a 2-1 series.
His team is very confident going into this series following an extraordinary 3-0 whitewash in Pakistan, but New Zealand has lost its past five Test matches, starting with the three in England.
Due to Kyle Jamieson's stress fracture of the back, which he originally sustained on the visit to England, Southee will be forced to captain an inexperienced attack after New Zealand drew both of their most recent Tests in Pakistan.
Matt Henry, a pitcher, who is expecting his first kid, will also be absent.
Jamieson's injury was described by coach Gary Stead as “looking like serious news.”
“In order to give Kyle the greatest chance of recovering, we attempted to be somewhat cautious with him throughout his recovery process.
He was tracking brilliantly, so it really caught us off guard.
Brook's attempt for history
James Anderson and Stuart Broad, two seam spearheads with 1,241 combined Test wickets, will provide a wealth of experience to England's bowling lineup as they attempt to win a series in New Zealand for the first time since 2008.
Neil Wagner and Blair Tickner will accompany Southee, who took over as Test captain after top batsman Kane Williamson resigned before to the Pakistan series.
Stead said that he would be “extremely shocked” if either Scott Kuggeleijn or Jacob Duffy, the two late seam bowling call-ups, did not make their debut.
Against a New Zealand XI, England scored 465 runs off 69.2 overs last week in their lone exhibition game, with Harry Brook smashing five consecutive sixes in one over on his way to 97.
If Brook replicates his record at the Bay Oval, he would become only the second England batsman, after Ken Barrington in the 1960s, to score hundreds in four straight Tests. Brook scored hundreds in each of the three Pakistan Test matches.
Regardless of the weather, the day-night game is scheduled to start on time at 2:00 pm (0100 GMT) on Thursday. On the first day, Mount Maunganui is expected to have a few rains before they stop.
Due to weather-related travel challenges, several New Zealand players weren't able to join the team at Mount Maunganui until Tuesday afternoon.
The Bay Oval playing field has remained covered, making it impossible for England's athletes to practice there.
With 675 Test wickets, Anderson made fun of the rain by saying, “To be honest, it's not too different from England.”
Beginning on February 24, the second Test will be played in Wellington.
Tim Southee (captain), Tom Blundell, Michael Bracewell, Devon Conway, Jacob Duffy, Scott Kuggeleijn, Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell, Henry Nicholls, Ish Sodhi, Blair Tickner, Neil Wagner, Kane Williamson, and Will Young are the players from New Zealand.
Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ben Foakes, Will Jacks, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, and Olly Stone are the members of the England team, along with the captain Ben Stokes.
