If Australia's bowlers produce another stellar performance against the Black Caps, two New Zealanders will be partially responsible.
Former Black Cap Andre Adams has helped guide the likes of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon in his role as New South Wales bowling coach, while James Pattinson – setto be picked as the fourth member of Australia's bowling attack – had his test career saved by Kiwi surgeon Grahame Inglis.
Mitchell Starc of Australia. Photo / Photosport
Pattinson is set to play in his first home test in four years, and holds a superb record against the Black Caps, taking 20 wickets at an average of 17.7. That includes 14 wickets in two tests in 2011 – the only time he's faced New Zealand in Australia – which included five straight wickets as he reduced the visitors to 28-5 on debut in Brisbane.
However, he feared his chances of playing in a Boxing Day test were over just two years ago, when he visited Inglis in a last-ditch attempt to fix his back injury, and save his career.
Inglis, who has performed the spinal surgery successfully on the likes of Matt Henry, Shane Bond, Hamish Bennett and Corey Anderson, initially believed Pattinson's back might have not been fixable. However, along with fellow Kiwi surgeon Rowan Schouten, they managed to allow Pattinson to play top-level test cricket again, inserting metal pins, wire and a graft from his hip bone into his vertebrae.
Pat Cummins celebrates. Photo / Photosport
Pattinson, who spent over a week in hospital after being unable to roll out of bed after the surgery, reflected on his return to the top level ahead of the iconic test in Melbourne.
"After being through so much disappointment with my back, [not being able to play in a Boxing Day test] is always in the back of your mind.
"I've been through a lot of setbacks but the hunger has always been there. Hopefully I can put in a good performance."
Also expecting a good performance is Starc, who is back to his devastating best, and credits Adams for his assistance with some technical changes, and getting his mindset in the right place.
"I got in a really clear mindset. Just tinkering with a few things and keeping it pretty simple and doing a lot of work with Andre back in NSW to get those really positive feelings and clear mindset. And it has seemed to pay off."
Adams explained to Martin Devlin on Newstalk ZB how he connected with Starc.
"My coaching method is based on the athlete – what do they need, where are they at? You just need to spend enough time with them to figure out how they deal with certain things. When it came to Starcy, it was just a case of figuring of 'this is what I do really well', and then being able to trust that."
Now, with a helping hand from their Kiwi sources, Starc and Pattinson are ready to fire – and the Black Caps will have to be at their best to deny them further success.
