Lucky seven for Aussie bowlers as they eye lengthy Test break

Before a ball had been bowled in the Australia men's team Test summer that has spanned seven matches, three months and as many opponents either side of the Tasman Sea, skipper Pat Cummins conceded it would be "unlikely" the same bowling line-up could be rolled out in every game.

But barring an unforeseen hiccup during the warm-up prior to the second Test against New Zealand starting at Christchurch's Hagley Oval tomorrow – the last of that seven-match stint – a new benchmark will be set for an unchanged Australia attack.

Given Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon set the previous longest streak of six games without an enforced or discretionary change during the preceding Test at Wellington, it speaks to the durability and reliability of the current cohort.

And the fact all four members of that group are aged 30-plus underscores the scale of their achievement in a job that places constant and unrelenting stress on a practitioner's person.

To gain an appreciation of how rare that run of prolonged fitness looks, the Australia team need only switch their gaze to their opponents in the final outing of the Qantas Tour of NZ.

Black Caps skipper Tim Southee, who tomorrow becomes the first NZ fast bowler to reach 100 Test caps and just the eighth specialist quick to claim that milestone, confirmed today his team has been compelled to make at least one change to their starting XI for Christchurch.

In just his second Test appearance at Basin Reserve last week, 22-year-old seamer Will O'Rourke suffered a hamstring injury midway through an over and will be replaced by uncapped (at Test level) Ben Sears.

It comes after NZ's most potent contemporary fast bowler Kyle Jamieson suffered a recurrence of stress fractures to his back in the previous series against South Africa which will see him sidelined until next summer, further stretching the Black Caps bowling reserves.

Despite the doubts he aired prior to the first NRMA Insurance Test against Pakistan at Perth last December, Cummins has not been forced into a similar situation with an injured member of his vaunted bowling quartet since Lyon succumbed to a calf strain at Lord's in July.

"I think I said at the start of the summer I'd be surprised if we played all seven because it's rare that something doesn't pop up," Cummins said today.

"But thankfully we've all managed the little niggles that pop up pretty well, and I think even the schedule this summer – just when you needed a week's break there was a week's break between Test matches.

"It's been a long summer, but we all feel like we've got a bit of freshness about us.

"We’re not limping over the line, and we feel like we're in a great position than I thought we'd be in a couple of months ago."

While the resilience of Australia's incumbent bowlers has been a blessing for Cummins and the team's coaching and selection staff, it has meant another summer of frustration for auxiliary quicks Scott Boland and Michael Neser who have effectively been reduced to over-qualified net bowlers.

It seems likely Boland will be granted a chance to return to competitive cricket for Victoria in their crucial Marsh Sheffield Shield encounter against fellow final aspirant Western Australia in Melbourne next week.

With that game starting on Monday, if the incumbent attack make it safely through pre-game warm-ups and take their place for the opening delivery, Boland could feasibly fly home tomorrow afternoon and be fresh for Shield duties.

However, it seems unlikely Neser and spare batter Matthew Renshaw will be released early partly because back-up players are required at Hagley Oval in case concussion protocols are activated, and also due to the reality Queensland are not in the hunt for the Shield final.

"There was talk of maybe sending Scotty back for Victoria but maybe holding Nes (Neser) back for Queensland, just to annoy Marnus (Labuschagne) and Uzzie (Usman Khawaja, his Queensland teammate)," Cummins joked today.

NZ's other selection quandary is whether to recall left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner after he was overlooked for the past two home Tests against South Africa (at Hamilton) and Australia (Wellington), or persist with fourth seamer Scott Kuggeleijn.

Santer's exclusion has been a topic of discussion in NZ given the pitches at Hamilton and Basin Reserve favoured spin with the Black Caps' first-choice tweaker watching from the sidelines, while Kuggeleijn was largely ineffective with both ball and bat in his first Test outing for a year.

"Hopefully we can get it right this week," Southee observed of his team's selection troubles.

The Hagley Oval pitch sports a thick mat of green grass which the curator claims will be left at a length of 12mm, even more grass than was seen on the Adelaide Oval decks when they were being prepared to cushion pink balls in the early iterations of day-night Tests.

However, as Cummins noted today, the sight of starkly green pitches can be misleading in NZ where – despite its thickness – the grass does not offer the same level of assistance to seamers as was the case at Basin Reserve last week where rival spinners Lyon and Glenn Phillips proved hardest to handle.

In that match, with Australia sent into bat after Southee won the coin toss, Cummins conceded he also would have bowled first if given the option but that was based as much on the low-level cloud at Wellington as the surface underfoot.

With fine weather forecast for Christchurch throughout the Test, peaking with an expected top of 29C on Monday, Cummins indicated he might not be unduly influenced by the sight of an emerald green pitch at tomorrow morning's toss.

"Like other New Zealand pitches, it starts off really green and obviously gets a bit flatter," Cummins said of the ground where NZ – led by then-skipper Brendon McCullum in his farewell Test – blazed 224 between lunch and tea on day one after being sent in when the teams last met at Hagley eight years ago.

"But it's not like a Gabba green wicket day one where it's going to seam all over the place.

"I think they still play pretty truly here, so it can be a bit misleading at times.

"It looks like a good wicket, it always looks to be consistently good here."

Australia have already retained the Trans-Tasman Trophy following their 172-run win at Wellington, but can leapfrog the Black Caps into second place on the World Test Championship ladder (behind India) with victory at Christchurch.

It would also crown a gruelling and triumphant 18-month stint of virtually non-stop cricket across three formats for Cummins' team, whose disappointment at the T20 World Cup in Australia last summer was ameliorated by success in the subsequent WTC and ODI World Cup finals, as well as a successful Ashes defence.

Given the current Qantas Tour represents the final Test commitments for Australia until they meet India at home for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy next summer, the upcoming fixture against the Black Caps signals a full stop to a remarkably successful recent phase.

"We know this is the one last big push for a while, and that's been a lot of the focus in the last week or so," Cummins said today.

"It's getting that balance right between 'we'll stretch ourselves as far as we can this time' with a few guys resting this week around training, making sure they're right, while other guys are piling on the training.

"So it's all geared towards this being the last big week for a while."

And with around 10 months to elapse before the men's team again takes the field in Test cricket, Cummins isn't about to speculate if the same group will reconvene in its unaltered form for that next assignment.

Qantas Tour of New Zealand

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February 29 – March 4: Australia won the first Test by 172 runs

March 8-12: Second Test, Christchurch, 9am AEDT

Australia Test squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc

New Zealand Test squad: Tim Southee (c), Tom Blundell (wk), Matt Henry, Scott Kuggeleijn, Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Mitchell Santner, Ben Sears, Kane Williamson, Will Young.