‘Take it to them’

NewsThe new Test captain has backed Tim Southee to rediscover his wicket-taking form

New Zealand’s new Test captain Tom Latham wants the team to play with “no fear” in the three-match series against India as they look to turn around a run of four consecutive World Test Championship defeats which have all-but ended their hopes of a place in the final.

Latham has taken over as full-time captain after Tim Southee stood down following the series against Sri Lanka last month. He starts his tenure with the three Tests in Bengaluru, Pune and Mumbai over the next three weeks before hosting England at home for a further three matches.

New Zealand have only ever won two Tests in India out of 36 matches with victories in 1969 in Nagpur and 1988 in Mumbai. On the recent tour of Sri Lanka they lost a closely-fought opening Test by 63 runs before being comprehensibly beaten by an innings and 154 runs in the second where they were bowled out 88 in the first innings.

“From my point of view it’s about trying to continue doing the good stuff we’ve been doing, trying to put my spin on things,” Latham said. “It’s an exciting challenging going over to India and once we can go over there hopefully [we can] play with a bit of freedom, bit of no fear and try and take it to them. If we do that hopefully gives ourselves a good chance.

“Think in India we’ve seen teams that have done well out there in the past have been quite aggressive towards them, especially with the bat they’ve looked to play a few shots, but also put them under pressure which is really important over there rather than sitting and waiting for something to happen. We’ll decide on how we want to play when we get over there, but guys have got plans around how they like to approach things and hopefully we can fine tune those.”

“We actually did some really good things in Sri Lanka,” Latham added. “We fell on the wrong sides of the results but there were some good things. The approach we had with the bat, apart from that one innings I thought we played really well. So it’s about continuing that as much as we can and trying to play a brand that we are proud of playing and if we do that hopefully it gives us a good chance.”

Latham has previously led the Test side on nine occasions as a stand-in for Kane Williamson between 2020 and 2022 but now has the opportunity to leave a more permanent mark in the role.

“Will certainly be leaning on those experiences,” he said. “Obviously a different situation being full-time where you can put your own spin on things but think what I want to do is encourage guys to be themselves, be leaders amongst themselves as well and hopefully if we can do that we can play the brand of cricket we want to play.”

As captain, Latham faces being part of the tricky selection call as to whether former captain Southee continues to keep his place in the XI after a lean run of wicket-taking in Test cricket over the last 12 months. Will O’Rourke was outstanding in Sri Lanka while Matt Henry and Ben Sears were on the sidelines but at the very least Latham will be looking to tap into Southee’s knowledge.

“If you look back, think in Bangalore [Southee] took seven wickets last time we toured there,” Latham said. “Someone with that amount of experience who’s done it for many years there’s certainly no reason why he can’t get back to where he’s been in the past. He’s been a fantastic bowler for us for many years, there’s a reason why he’s so high on the wicket list for New Zealand.

“He’ll have a similar role that he has always had whether it’s as captain or in the past, someone like that who has a wealth of experience, a wealth of knowledge in all conditions and he’s done it for many years and has been successful. We’ll certainly be tapping into his mind, his ideas, so looking forward to it.”