NZ haven’t won a Test vs Aus since 2011 in recently retired David Warner’s debut series. Warner interestingly carried his bat in that match as Steve Smith did recently against the West Indies at the Gabba.
Australia haven’t played a Test in NZ since 2016.
No player in the current Australian squad has played more than Two Tests in New Zealand, that too from eight years ago. Pat Cummins for example has played 60 Tests, but not one of them has been in New Zealand.
NZ are looking for their first Test win on NZ shores vs Aus in over 30 years since 1992-93 and first series win over Aus since 1985-86, barring a one off Test in NZ in 1989 which NZ won.
They have both won a World Test Championship final in England against India in recent years, the only two countries to have won this competition and they are meeting each other in Test Cricket for the first time since either of them held the mace.
Both teams are currently number one and three on the table for the ICC World Test Championship 2025 final qualification race, having both completed a third of their six allocated series in this cycle.
It is the first Test series between the two countries since the pandemic. They didn’t meet each other in the previous 2021-2023 World Test Championship. They last played a Test against each in January 2020 in Sydney.
Both teams have experienced fast bowling skippers leading them in Southee and Cummins, a rare occurrence. Both Captains know each other from their KKR days in recent IPL seasons.
Australia are coming off a Test defeat to West Indies whereas NZ have won their last three Tests. New Zealand have also won their last 5 home Tests. Given Australia’s dominant record against NZ in Test Cricket, it helps that NZ have been winning and Australia have recently slipped up, coming into this series when previewing the contest.
Australia have only won a single Test series abroad since they last played Test Cricket in New Zealand: lost 3-0 in SL 2016, lost 2-1 in Ind 2017, drew 1-1 in Bang 2017, lost 3-1 in SA 2018, lost 1-0 in UAE to Pak in 2018, drew 2-2 in Eng 2019, won 1-0 in Pak 2022, drew 1-1 in SL 2022, lost 2-1 in Ind 2023 and drew 2-2 in Eng 2023. So just the solitary series win in their last 10 series abroad and that too by a one match margin. The Aussies will be keen to prove a point or two and maintain their dominance in New Zealand, where they haven’t lost a Test Match for over thirty years as mentioned in point 4.
Brendon McCullum’s last international appearance was the last time Australia played Test Cricket in New Zealand in the 2015-16 season
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