There is a lot of hype building up for the inaugural World Test Championship final to be played between India and New Zealand and it has somewhat engulfed the upcoming Test series between New Zealand and England which otherwise would have attracted a lot of attraction.
However, the fact that there are two Test matches and a series to be won against England at their home is not lost on any of the Blackcaps squad member heading to England.
Before leaving for England, one of the chief architects of New Zealand’s journey into the WTC final—Neil Wagner, outlined that the Blackcaps will not be taking the series against the hosts as just a build-up series leading up to the WTC final and instead the series holds a separate special place for the side.
"We're not going to treat these two Test matches against England just as warm-ups (before the WTC final). I know for a fact we're going to get out there and pride ourselves the way we've been playing Test cricket and we want to win Test matches for New Zealand,” Wagner said to reporters at the Auckland airport while leaving for England.
Wagner also pointed out that the early arrival in England due to Covid-19 measures and pre-series preparation camp in Lincoln would serve them well going into the first Test starting June 02.
Wagner said that on earlier tours Blackcaps did not use to get ample opportunity to train with the duke ball before facing the stiff task of adapting to it which is not the case this time as they have been practising with the duke ball for some time in a camp in Lincoln.
"It's been quite nice, it's obviously got different characteristics to the Kookaburra. The way we've been training for the last while is something we didn't always have in the past, having the facilities and having a marquee up and getting a number of trainings in before going to England. On tours in the past you rock up there and you've only got a couple of trainings and maybe one head out with the Dukes ball before the first Test and with that you can find yourself a little bit behind,” Wagner added.
Neil Wagner makes a formidable quartet of bowlers for New Zealand along with Tim Southee, Trent Boult, and Kyle Jamieson. Wagner holds the number tree rank on the ICC Rankings for bowlers and has scalped 32 wickets from seven Test matches that were played under the umbrella of the World Test Championship at a phenomenal average of 22.5 runs per wicket.