Cricket: Slow starts a bad habit on test tour

Tim Southee of New Zealand with team mates. Photo / Getty Images

Slow starts over the past year have become an awkward habit for New Zealand on overseas test tours.

At Abu Dhabi against Pakistan, Lord's against England and at the Gabba against Australia, they struggled to impose themselves in the opening test.

However, in the UAE and England, they flexed enough muscle to eventually draw those series.

In the UAE, Pakistan declared at 566 for three after deciding to bat, the first time a test team's top five batsmen each made over 80 in an innings.

BJ Watling alluded to the test after the first day in Brisbane when asked if Australia's 389-2 was the toughest in the field across his career. "No, we played a test in Abu Dhabi that was pretty tough," he said. "There was a lot more action in that one."

In contrast to Pakistan's 178-run opening partnership, England were 30-4 at Lord's, but rallied to make 389. England's bowlers scythed through New Zealand's second innings for 220, to win by 124 runs. That left New Zealand's 523 as the highest first innings from which any of the 131 tests at the ground had been lost.

On both those occasions, preparation before the tour was limited - a by-product of modern era scheduling.

New Zealand played a three-dayer against Pakistan A in Sharjah and two four-dayers against Somerset and Worcester in England, when players returned in dribs and drabs from the Indian Premier League.

In Australia, they played a 50-over match with a pink ball in Canberra, followed by a two-dayer and the abandoned three-dayer at Sydney's Blacktown Oval, which was called off because of its lunar-like surface on the second day. Coach Mike Hesson described it as "a jigsaw with about half the pieces missing".

It could not have contrasted more graphically with the bounce and carry experienced in Brisbane, as the Black Caps tried to break the hosts' 27-year unbeaten record at the venue.

In such a congested schedule, three warm-up games of varying descriptions, plus further match practice with the pink ball between the second and third tests, is probably as good as they can hope for.

However, if international sides want visitors to be fully prepared for contests on their home patch, goodwill has to extend to meaningful preparation.

Compare that with 1985 ahead of New Zealand's only series victory in Australia. The visitors played a two-dayer, three-dayer and two four-dayers against state sides from Queensland and South Australia.

Expect the Black Caps to improve as this series unfolds but, for the foreseeable future, they may have to accept they enter each series with a long game in mind.