Cricket
New Zealand v England First Test preview
As 2024 draws to a close, England head to the other side of the world for a three-Test series against New Zealand, hoping to finish off the year in style.
It’s been an interesting year of Test cricket to say the least for England, starting off with Tom Hartley taking seven wickets in a historic win in India – a series which the hosts would go on to dominate, winning 4-1.
That was hardly a flying start, but a return to home soil proved fruitful for England as they whitewashed the West Indies in July’s three-Test series, before defeating Sri Lanka 2-1 to cap off a successful summer for the red ball team.
Autumn brought about another trip to the subcontinent, and it was another unsuccessful one as they slumped to a 2-1 defeat against Pakistan, with the nature of defeat in the third Test raising a few eyebrows.
They’ll have to turn things around in New Zealand to get the fans back on side after a disappointing showing, with Brendon McCullum making some notable changes as he seeks to end the year on a high.
We preview the first of three Tests between England and New Zealand below
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England will stick to their Roots
Consistency has been lacking in the England Test setup for some time now, emphasised by this year’s mixed bag of results. There’s no doubting some of the talent in the side, but it all comes down to whether ‘Bazball’ can really produce results on a consistent basis.
Swinging for the hills and playing constant aggressive cricket is okay when you have an element of control in the game but chasing a match or series with wild swipes of the bat and attempting to score at an ODI, or even T20 rate, is not going to work.
England need to take control of this series early on and are certainly in with a chance of doing so at 6/5 to win the first test, but those odds still make them slight underdogs.
One man who has certainly taken the bull by the horns this summer and been a constant shining light for England in dimmer moments is Joe Root. Many players have had their position in the side questioned in recent years and months, but not Root.
He is a constant for England and how he’d love to end 2024 – the year in which he became England’s all-time leading run scorer in Test cricket – on a positive note. Root heads his side’s top run scorer market at 14/5 and his performance will be a key factor in determining whether or not England’s 11,000-mile journey was worth their while.
Perhaps the more interesting position has been the one ahead of Root, though. Ollie Pope looked to have all the tools to be England’s long-term number three batsman but that hasn’t proven to be the case, so McCullum has handed the opportunity to Jacob Bethell, who will be hoping to leave his mark on this series and put himself in contention to nail down the position for next year’s Ashes.
Kiwis hoping to continue fruitful summer
New Zealand have a lot of positives to take from the Test cricket they’ve played in 2024, which has seen them rise to fifth in the ICC Men’s Test Team rankings.
Their most recent encounter made the world of Test cricket open their eyes to what is an improving Test nation in New Zealand, as they inflicted an astonishing 3-0 whitewash on an India side ranked second in the world.
Will Young was named Player of the Series and the 32-year-old, who only made his Test debut in 2020, has been a real driving force in the Kiwis’ resurgence as a Test side. He filled the void left by Kane Williamson at number three in India and although the main man returns for this series and is the 13/5 favourite to be his side’s top run scorer, Young could be worth a go at 11/2.
