Broom faces a test of nerves

Neil Broom has every right to be nervous ahead of his long-awaited test debut.

Having reached the highest level of international cricket at the age of 33, he may have been hoping for a comfortable introduction.

Instead, there is a green Basin Reserve pitch on which he has traditionally struggled and a vaunted South African pace attack hungry to exploit it, and him.

Fair play to the Otago batsman then for owning up to a few nerves before training yesterday.

‘‘I’ll be a little bit more nervous going into a game like this than any other game I’ve ever played, but at the same time I just want to treat it as any other game, as if I was going out there playing for Otago.’’

That approach might not work out too well for him, if history is anything to go by.

Broom made his first-class debut as a 19-year-old for Canterbury at the ground in February 2003, scoring two 40s which he said ’’paid the bills that day’’.

Since then he has just two firstclass 50s at the venue in 18 innings. He does have a 50-over century at the Basin to his name, but his firstclass average of 27.37 at the ground is his lowest at any of the grounds he has played more than five innings at.

Then there is the pitch, which was finally exposed to the elements yesterday after being under covers since Friday, with the usual quips of ‘‘which one is it’’ emanating from a few.

Black Caps coach Mike Hesson and captain Kane Williamson spoke with ground staff before their afternoon training after prodding and poking certain areas of the green strip, but the expectation is for it to play as a normal Basin deck should, doing a bit early before flattening out through the middle days.

Broom hadn’t had a chance to look at it before speaking with media, but took a glance over his shoulder through the windows of the Norwood Room in the RA Vance Stand and said with a wry smile ‘‘yeah it’s a bit green . . . looking forward to it’’.

You would expect Broom, who will slot into the middle order for the injured Ross Taylor, to be crossing all his fingers and toes that Williamson wins the toss tomorrow and puts South Africa in to bat.

That should make life a bit easier for when he faces the South African pace trio of Vernon Philander, Morne Morkel and Kagiso Rabada.

He has faced the first two before, but that was 10 years ago in an Emerging Players Tournament in Australia in which Philander got him out three times in four innings.

‘‘I think I managed to bust my rib, [former Black Caps opener] Jamie How did the same. I got a few ticklers up there, he [Morkel] got a bit of bounce.

‘‘They were pretty tough then, so it will be another step up now. Two great bowlers on a [Basin Reserve] pitch that looks like that – it’ll be tough work.’’

His 136 first-class games will see him rank third on the list of most first-class matches before making a New Zealand test debut behind Dipak Patel (253) and Tom Lowry (139).

Broom said it had been a long time coming.

‘‘There was a couple of times when I felt I got close, when it was out of me and a couple of other players, but when push came to shove I missed out, which was a bit disappointing, but here I am now.’’

In other team news, fast bowler Trent Boult trained in a limited capacity yesterday, with a decision to be made today on whether he can play.

‘‘I’ll be a little bit more nervous going into a game like this.’’ Test debutant Neil Broom