Over-by-over report: Join our writers for all the latest news as the series gets under way in Mount Maunganui
Hello and welcome to live coverage of the first Test between New Zealand and England in Mount Maunganui. Yep, Bazball is coming home. The latest assignment for England’s Test cricket revolutionaries is a two-match series in New Zealand, the birthplace of their coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes. Their first challenge is to navigate the unique rhythms of a day-night Test, and to get blood out of a pink ball.
We don’t yet know whether Bazball is a moment in time or something more epochal, so for now we might as well just enjoy the unprecedented sensation of England being the most exciting Test team in the world. Like the white-ball revolution of 2015, it all started against New Zealand. England won 3-0 last summer, though New Zealand were competitive in all three games before being smashed to smithereens in the final act. They are still a fine side, even if they haven’t always shown it since winning the World Test Championship.
They are without players for all kinds of reasons – retirement, injury, franchise contacts, parenthood, something else I’ve forgotten – and their team for this game will include only five or six of the XI that beat India in that WTC final 18 months ago. They also have a newish captain in Tim Southee.
New Zealand’s Test record since that glorious day in Hampshire is P11 W2 D4 L5, although most of those games were overseas. They haven’t lost a series at home since 2016-17, so we shouldn’t underestimate the size of the task ahead for England.have won nine Tests out of ten under the new-age captaincy of Stokes, their best run since the giddy year of 2004. Then, as now, all roads led to one thing: the Ashes.
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