After a few days acclimatising to Africa, the BLACKCAPS have got down to business at their Pretoria training camp.
Coach Mike Hesson’s encouraged a slow build for the tour party so far, but things certainly went up a notch in Friday’s third training session.
"The first couple of trainings it was good to get a few overs under the belt and blow out some cobwebs, but today we stepped it up a gear and the intensity was a lot higher,” said allrounder Doug Bracewell.Bracewell laughed off comments from team mate Trent Boult that he had arrived at camp in the best shape, but acknowledged he’d been put through his strides by trainer Chris Donaldson in the off-season.
“I try to keep it maintained pretty high, the boys have pretty high standards. I’ve just been following CD’s (BLACKCAPS trainer) programme which is pretty hardout, so the body’s feeling good and ready for some Test match cricket.
Players are continuing to drip back into camp from their various commitments around the world, with Tom Latham the latest to link up with the squad following a successful county stint playing for Kent.
“It was a really good, intensive few months playing cricket most days - 20 out of the 22 days at one stage,” he said.
“I wanted to be playing heading into this tour, so it's certainly going to be beneficial instead of coming from indoor nets - playing outdoors and being used to grass wickets. For me now it's just about adjusting to the conditions here instead of having to get used to batting on grass."
Latham’s arrival takes the total in camp to 12, with paceman Matt Henry and opening batsman Martin Guptill due in over the weekend.
That will leave just captain Kane Williamson and the experienced Ross Taylor to join the team ahead of the three day warm-up match in Bulawayo later next week.
On Sunday they will have an open net session putting their skills against each other before the team relocates to Zimbabwe.
