All-rounder Scott Styris is relishing the opportunity of being back in the BLACKCAPS squad for the limited-overs series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates – and looking forward to getting runs on the board.
“I feel like I’ve been away forever, even though I’ve had short stints with the team over the last 12 months,” said Styris from Dubai this week. “It’s good to catch up with everybody again and get back into some work over here.
“I feel like I’ve been hitting the ball really well,” said Styris. “At the Twenty20 World Cup I was relatively happy with the way that went, and since then – without playing a lot of cricket – I feel like I’ve been going ok.
“I’d just like to get out there and play some consistent cricket, as it’s been a bit stop-start over the last few months.”
The BLACKCAPS have been putting in long hours in the nets since arriving in Dubai, and Styris says the wickets have been different from what they expected.
“I remember watching the Australia-Pakistan series over here, and they were extremely slow wickets – they turned quite a bit and scoring was difficult. I remember the batsmen’s strike rate being very low, and a score of 200 or 220 being a good score.
“We had our first nets session yesterday and the wickets had a little bit of pace, a little bit of grass on them, and were good for batting. If they play like that there should be some high scores.”
The BLACKCAPS team transfers from Dubai to Abu Dhabi on Monday, ahead of the first of three One-Day Internationals on Tuesday 3 November.
