Always feels weird to watch cricket in the night during winter - completely out of sync with my moods as well as the seasons, a window into a distant summer. Won't be able to watch the first couple of sessions but will get up for the last.
I felt the last tour of the West Indies was something of an ambush seeing as the West Indies were in disarray with (mostly) off-field issues leading into it, but then everything came together for them leading into the series, Gayle took a hold over our bowlers during the limited overs matches and we never recovered. Gayle, Roach and Taylor reappearing for this series gives me a similar feeling, though I don't know how close to their best they will be.
Pitches will be very interesting, but I hope not too interesting. Anything but that warmup pitch, or any pitch where slidy accurate Jadeja-like spinners dominate; the equivalent of an old fashioned NZ green seamer where a 125km/h bowler just needs to nag away, hit the seam (or not) and the pitch will do the rest.
We should be picking a pure batsman to replace Anderson at 6, given we already have 4 bowlers plus Williamson's part time spin. However our reserve batsmen are Ronchi and the spare opener. Yuck. Tbh Ronchi probably deserves the chance though I'm not a believer and he's injured anyway. Anyway, score one for messing up our balance by picking a useless third opener in the squad. I would be slightly more enthused if Brownlie or Guptill were there (though let's not get too excited). Neesham seems a pretty big risk but **** it.
TEST CRICKET!
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