Series defeat has shown England’s selections to be muddled with a schedule that does not enhance their Test prospects
The last time New Zealand won a Test series in England, back in 1999, England’s fans crowded the outfield and shouted “what a load of rubbish” and “we’re shit and we know we are” at the captain, Nasser Hussain, during his post-match interview. The mood was a little more forgiving this time, not because England were any better – they weren’t – but because the opposition were. In ’99 the result dropped England to the bottom of the world rankings. This time it pushed New Zealand to the top of them.
While England were settling down to the grim business of their postmortem, New Zealand’s plan was to take a couple of days to celebrate, then start preparing for the World Test Championship final against India in Southampton next week. As one of their journalists put it in a question to the stand-in captain, Tom Latham, the team “have bigger fish to fry”. Latham was too polite to agree with him, but the truth is this summer England find themselves in the awkward position of being the third-best Test team in their own country.
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