Latham calls upon NZ to keep ‘raising the bar’ in bid for Test series win

New Zealand Looks to Build on Momentum

Tom Latham took pleasure in New Zealand’s ‘old-school’ win at The Oval last week and called on his team-mates to ‘keep raising the bar’ as they chase a series win over England at Trent Bridge.

New Zealand’s players were shocked to learn five days before the second Test that Kane Williamson was retiring from international cricket with immediate effect, but responded to his absence with a complete team performance in a 253-run win. Latham took particular pleasure from their conviction in their style.

Latham’s Thoughts on the Series

‘Any series you step into, the end goal is to be there at the end with the results that you want,’ Latham said. ‘What’s important for us is the work we do leading up to that point, and trying to stick to the things that we do well and stick to our style as best we can.’

‘It was a really good example of how we operated last week [which] was maybe slightly different to what the modern generation of Test cricket is, and how it’s been played. It was a little bit more old-school, and trying to do things for long periods of time and keep being a threat for long periods of time.’

Team Changes and Strategies

New Zealand will be without Kyle Jamieson at Trent Bridge, who was deemed unavailable as he manages his workload following a long lay-off with a back stress fracture. ‘He’s certainly not injured; there’s nothing there to worry about,’ Latham said. ‘It was always the plan for him to get through two Test matches.’

Mitchell Santner will come into contention in Jamieson’s absence, with New Zealand mulling the option of picking a frontline spinner for the first time in the series. Santner returned from a shoulder injury ahead of schedule to be with the squad for the first Test, and the ongoing British heatwave could mean conditions suit him.

‘For Mitch to get himself ready for this tour… was testament to the work that he put in,’ Latham said. ‘He’s someone that spins the ball on many different surfaces. If we do go down that line, then we certainly know he’ll be a threat throughout the five days.’

Challenges at Trent Bridge

Trent Bridge’s unusual dimensions and fast outfield mean that it can be a difficult ground for captains to stem the flow of runs. Latham found out as much to his cost four years ago when, standing in for Williamson, he watched England chase down a fourth-innings target of 299 in just 50 overs.

‘If you look at that series as a whole, the results were probably a little bit closer than what the scoreboard suggests,’ Latham said. ‘In all three games, we were certainly in the hunt… There were three really good chases throughout that series from England. You obviously know what happened towards the back end of the game with Jonny [Bairstow] and Stokesy [Ben Stokes].’

‘It’s probably a little bit similar – on a slightly different sized ground – to last week,’ Latham said. ‘It can be a quick-scoring ground with it being slightly smaller; a decent-sized block [of pitches] which you are usually faced with here in England.’

‘It’s about trying to adapt to these conditions or the surface and ground as quickly as we can, and we’ve got a little bit of knowledge on how we operated here a few years ago. It’s all about playing what’s in front of us as much as we can, and we’ll certainly be looking to do that over the next few days.’