a little more than three weeks ago<\/a>. New Zealand\u2019s have played 28 games, the latest was this month. These are groups who spend a lot of time together, but before the start of their Twenty20 series on Saturday both chiselled some space out of their schedule to do something surprisingly unusual with each other: nothing very\u00a0much.<\/p>\nBrendon McCullum took his team to Queenstown in New Zealand\u2019s Southern Alps where, in Harry Brook\u2019s words, they were \u201cjust left to our own devices\u201d. There was some hiking, a bit of go-karting and, inevitably, a lot of golf.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had an amazing time,\u201d Brook said. \u201cThey\u2019ve got some amazing golf courses down there and we were lucky enough to get on a couple of them. A couple of lads\u00a0managed to get out and explore Queenstown. We had a few drinks here and there and team\u00a0meals.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a lot of fun \u2013 it was about trying to spend a bit of time together because we don\u2019t really get that in the white-ball [team]. If you\u2019re having a lot of fun off the field and enjoying spending time with the lads, then it\u2019s going to be even better on the field. So I encourage everybody under mine and Baz\u2019s leadership to just enjoy themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Black Caps, meanwhile, were in the spa town of Hanmer Springs, attempting something very similar with the aid of thermal pools and water slides. \u201cIt was the first time in a very long time we had everyone in the room, everyone who\u2019s involved in the Black Caps\u00a0touring party and all the contracted players,\u201d said Rachin\u00a0Ravindra.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a new coach [Rob Walter] and trying to understand our environment and go back to what we\u2019ve been doing really well for the last few years and getting together is special. It\u2019s more than your performances on the field, it\u2019s also getting on well as mates and getting to know the coaches and support staff. The more we can understand and care for each other, the better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matt Henry, the New Zealand seamer, said: \u201cWhen you have a small window to get guys together and work on the environment it\u2019s always important. In the moving landscape of international cricket there\u2019s people coming from all around the world and it\u2019s important that when you get together you make sure you enjoy it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s probably always been our strength, the people we have. It\u2019s amazing to play for New Zealand, but to be able to share a dressing room with mates is pretty special too. It\u2019s always good to acknowledge that and come to a series refreshed.\u201d<\/p>\n
That feeling of being refreshed may be hard to maintain when some England players left home last Friday knowing they will not return for three months, with these three T20s to be followed by the same number of one-day internationals and then the short flight to Australia for the Ashes. There is an awareness that these extended periods away should not come to be seen as a grind.<\/p>\n
\u201cTouring\u2019s awesome,\u201d Brook said. \u201cI get to see some of the best places in the world, experience some of the greatest things with a load of my mates. I love touring.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s nice to see family when they come out \u2013 I\u2019ll get my family out at the end of December, so I\u2019ll be with them over Christmas and new year and then fly back with them. I don\u2019t see it as a chore at all. I absolutely love touring. Putting an England shirt on is a great day.\u201d<\/p>\n
England:<\/b> Phil Salt, Jos Buttler (wk), Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook (c), Tom Banton, Sam Curran, Jordan Cox, Brydon Carse, Liam Dawson, Adil Rashid, Luke Wood.<\/p>\n
New Zealand (possible):<\/b> Tim Seifert (wk), Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner (c), Jimmy Neesham, Kyle Jamieson, Matt Henry, Jacob Duffy.<\/p>\n
Brook has already chosen the team who will be putting on shirts on Saturday, making two changes to the side that thrashed South Africa at Old Trafford<\/a> in his most recent appearance \u2013 he sat out the subsequent trip to Ireland \u2013 with Jordan Cox replacing the injured Will Jacks and Brydon Carse coming in for the rested Jofra\u00a0Archer.<\/p>\n\u201cWe\u2019ve got a great opportunity against a very strong side to go out and try to capitalise on the momentum we\u2019ve got,\u201d Brook said. \u201cThe last game we played together as a full group we got 300 in a T20, so if we can carry that forward it would be awesome.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the bigger picture being the T20 World Cup at the start of next year there\u2019s a lot of areas we can improve on and a lot we can keep on getting better at. It\u2019s just about being together as a group and heading in the same direction.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harry Brook (left) and Mitchell Santner get their hands on the series trophy. Both sides have used the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[1500,748,4044,393,5686,4884,5681,12,5683,5682,5684,5685,16,15,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-505177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-daily-news","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-global-news","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-inkl","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-news-app","17":"tag-news-headlines","18":"tag-news-today","19":"tag-today-news","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom","22":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115386046679251485","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Harry](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1000.jpg\")