Good to be home - Southee

Senior BLACKCAPS pace bowler Tim Southee is relishing Thursday’s first ANZ Test of the home summer against Pakistan at Christchurch’s Hagley Oval.

After the best part of three and a half months on the road from Africa to India, the team held their first training on home soil on Tuesday.

“Everyone’s pretty excited to get home to conditions we’re familiar with and conditions that over the last few years we have played some good cricket in. It’s also exciting to come to a ground with a bit of pace and bounce and with some grass on the wicket,” Southee said.

“India is pretty much the polar opposite to what we face here and apart from a couple of poor tests against Australia, I don’t think we’ve lost a Test at home for a few years so we’ve got confidence.”

A long afternoon net session was held under sunny Christchurch skies on Tuesday, with new men Jeet Raval, Todd Astle and Colin de Grandhomme all getting into their work.

Southee has plenty of competition of his own for the seaming spots with Trent Boult, Neil Wagner and Matt Henry all in form and gunning for a start.

“There’s healthy competition and it’s a good problem to have. We’ve got guys pushing each other at training and there’s always competition for your spot.”

The 27-year-old showed promising signs when he returned from injury for the Indian One Dayers and he also grabbed a bagful of wickets for Northern Districts in the Plunket Shield last week.

“It was nice to get through all my overs and just get back playing some red ball cricket. It was good to pick up the wickets, but I was just pleased to feel good throughout the game. It’s nice to feel fit and ready to go.”

The pedigree of the Pakistan visitors is well known and Southee expected them to live up to their number two Test ranking.

“They’re a quality side with some great seamers and some batsmen who have scored runs all around the world. So it’s going to be an exciting series to be back in conditions we’re familiar with.”

The first Test will be live on SKY SPORTS on Thursday morning from 10:30 and you can follow all the build-up via our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat - @BLACKCAPS/BLACKCAPSNZ.