- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
A massive rivalry reignites as Australia take on New Zealand for the first time in Test cricket since 2011. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage of Day 1 from 10:30am (AEDT).
While he has already captained Australia on a couple of individual occasions when Michael Clarke was out with injury, Steve Smith now takes over on a permanent basis and will immediately feel the pressure against a strong New Zealand side.
Other new faces in the Australian side from their last Ashes Test in England include Joe Burns, who will open the batting with David Warner, and Usman Khawaja, who is the new first drop.
Khawaja is seemingly on his last chance to fire in the Australian Test team.
Burns, meanwhile, didn’t disappoint when he was given the opportunity to bat at six for Australia last summer and was a surprising omission from the Ashes touring squad. Now he gets a chance to bat in his preferred position at the top of the order and lock down a spot.
New Zealand are stable from their last Test series against the English away from home. That series was tied at one game apiece and proved the Black Caps are becoming one of the best teams in world cricket.
The Kiwis started their Aussie tour in Canberra with a one-day game using the pink ball, winning by over 100 runs. However only Tim Latham and Martin Guptil scored runs, with the rest of the order falling away.
It was then onto a two-day game, again in Canberra, which New Zealand again won. However, they only took four wickets and retired six batsmen during their chase.
Blacktown would be the venue of their final tour match, a proposed four-day game that only went for one-and-a-half days after Cricket Australia XI opening batsmen Aaron Finch and Ryan Carters put on a partnership of over 500 runs, before the game was abandoned with the pitch deemed unsafe.
The battle in Brisbane looks like it will be between the pace bowlers, particularly in the first innings. From all reports, it will be played on a typical Gabba pitch – green and aiding the pace bowlers early on.
Both teams have strong pace attacks, with the likes of Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood for the Australians, while New Zealand have Tim Southee and Trent Boult, who terrorised in the World Cup, and were good during the tour of England.
Both teams will be keen to keep the match moving, with the Brisbane weather forecast looming less than impressive. Rain or storms in some form are expected for each and every day of the match.
Join The Roar for live coverage as cricket returns from 10:30am (AEDT) and be sure to leave your comments as the day unfolds.
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde