BLACKCAPS Coach Mike Hesson feels his team has earned the right to play longer Test series.
The 40-year-old, who guided New Zealand to its best ever Test season in 2014-15 when they claimed five Test wins, feels the BLACKCAPS are gaining recognition on the world stage.
Since losing to England 2-0 in 2013, New Zealand has gone undefeated in their past six Test series and Hesson would like to see their improved performance mirrored with greater opportunity on the world stage.
“We’ve started to earn the right now to play longer series than two Tests,” Hesson told a packed press conference at Lord’s.
“That’s something we are looking forward to and our administrators want to make it happen.”
A two-match contest is the minimum required to constitute a series by the International Cricket Council (ICC), the sport's governing body.
Hesson believed that there are a number of factors that create the scheduling of the Test calendar.
“I think some of it has been performance, I think we’ve been down the pecking order in terms of our ranking,” said Hesson, whose side are now fifth in the standings, while England are fourth.
The BLACKCAPS have enjoyed one of the finest periods of Test success under Hesson with Brendon McCullum as the skipper. They have won four and drawn two of their last six Test series since they were well beaten by England two years ago.
In that time, they beat the West Indies by 53 runs in the third test at Bridgetown, Barbados, to clinch the series 2-1.
They drew a series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates, after Australia had struggled there, and went on to dominate the home summer with an aggressive 2-0 win over Sri Lanka.
“For 18 months we’ve played good cricket, six series in a row Test wise,” said Hesson.
It is a long way from the 2013 Test against South Africa where the BLACKCAPS were bowled out for 45. It proved a watershed moment for the side and has created a golden era of performance.
In recent time the BLACKCAPS have not been considered a draw card by the bigger Test playing nations and have rarely played Test series longer than three matches.
“Often, England have two (incoming) tours and we get the early one. We tend to be a bit of an entree to the Ashes, it seems to be the way we’ve been used in the past,” said Hesson.
The coach said winning a Test series would be a fine achievement and another stepping stone for his developing side.
“We’ve won four Test matches here [England] in our history, so to win a series would be huge,” he said.
New Zealand begins their tour against Somerset on Friday before playing another four-day warm-up match against Worcestershire ahead of Tests at Lord’s and Headingley.
Hesson believed his side would be better equipped to take on the challenge of winning a Test series in England after learning some valuable lessons in the 2013 series.
“If you look at that Test match here [at Lord’s] two years ago, we were right in it for three innings and we know that it can slip pretty quickly. We have learnt from that. We have got a slightly more experienced group, although there are still some young ones there, we have just got to hold it together for five days. That is our biggest challenge really.”
Hesson stressed the importance of not getting ahead of themselves.
“We had some really good sessions during that Test [in 2013] so the lesson was not taking our eye of the ball, we did for a session and we lost the Test match and a bit of momentum.”
Hesson said the team to play Somerset was an easy one to select as the BLACKCAPS have only 11 fit players.
Martin Guptill, who has starred for Derbyshire early in the county season, is side-lined by a side strain and it is hoped that he will be fit for the Worcester match next week.
Will Young, a former New Zealand Under 19 captain, is playing Country Cricket in the UK and will join the team to play as the 12thman.
New Zealand XI to face Somerset:
BJ Watling (Capt), Doug Bracewell, Mark Craig, Jacob Duffy, Tom Latham, Luke Ronchi, Hamish Rutherford, Mitchell Santner, Ross Taylor, Neil Wagner, Ben Wheeler
12th man: Will Young
Click here for BLACKCAPS Tour of England Schedule
