The New Zealand cricketer Tim Southee has admitted that he is uncertain about captaining the test squad for the upcoming tours of India and Afghanistan.
Tim Southee unsure about Captaincy
After suffering a three-wicket defeat on the second test of Australia’s tour of New Zealand 2024, skipper Tim Southee said that he is unaware of his captaincy and even his inclusion in the squad.
New Zealand’s next test schedule is only in September this year and that one-off game against Afghanistan will be the start of a phase that also includes tours of Sri Lanka and India.
He completed his 100th test during the second test, with only four wickets across the series which is quite low when compared to debutant Ben Sears in the Test.
“We’ll see,” Southee said. “Obviously you go to Asia, the make-up of the side changes slightly with spin becoming the main threat in that part of the world. But we’ll see when we get there. We’ll deal with this tonight and look to move forward to what’s to come.”
Southee led New Zealand batted first in the second test where they scored 162 runs in the first innings while Australia responded with 256 runs.
But the New Zealand batter rose in the second innings scoring 372 runs and setting up a target of 279 runs.
“Hindsight is a wonderful thing,” Southee said. “But I think the amount of times we went past the bat in that first session, we felt that seam was the option. We created a few chances through that first session. I think we felt that seam was the right move.”
But Blackcaps were weak in the fielding as they dropped the catch of Mitchell Marsh when he was at 28 runs.
“Guys don’t mean to drop catches,” Southee said. “Everyone works hard on the fielding. Obviously, that one went down early in the day.
But if we take that then we don’t get the wicket the next ball and who’s to say Head doesn’t go on and have an innings like Marsh? You look back on some things. But the guys work hard on their fielding.”
Despite having decent records in the ODI series of Trans-Tasman series, New Zealand has never won a test against Australia since 2011.
“I’m not too sure,” Southee said. “They’re a tough side to beat, not only in Australia but when they travel as well.
“I think when you play the best you’ve got to be at your best for those periods, that little bit longer. We had moments through both Test matches where we could have been a little bit better at times and then things could have been slightly different.
But it was just another great Test and there’s been plenty of those over the last few years,” he concluded.
New Zealand has no schedules till the start of June when they are set to join the Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 campaign.
New Zealand will be playing their first match of the T20 World Cup schedule against Afghanistan on June 08 at Providence Stadium.
