New Zealand vs South Africa 1st Test: Likely XI for visitors

New Zealand start their tour against South Africa with the first Test from August 19th at Kingsmead, Durban. New Zealand had a good series against Zimbabwe, where they won the two-Test series by 2-0 hence completing a comprehensive one-sided win. The good point which New Zealand had from this series was all their players played best to their abilities. Ross Taylor, Tom Latham, Kane Williamson, Neil Wagner were the highlights for New Zealand. Carrying on the same momentum, New Zealand will be playing against South Africa, who are without the likes of AB de Villiers and Morne Morkel.  FULL CRICKET SCORECARD: South Africa vs New Zealand, 1st Test at Durban

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With a thought of seeking the first Test series win against South Africa, New Zealand will have to be at their best to turn the tables. Visitors also hold a advantage as they have a young team and are without any injury stricken players, but on the other hand South Africa have had a couple of injury problems as they have an ageing squad. Moreover, The New Zealand squad are all on the same wavelength as these players have been in the team for a long time, whereas South African team has had some players going in and out of the team due to inconsistency or injuries. ALSO READ: South Africa vs New Zealand: Different agendas; one common goal

Top Order: New Zealand won’t make much changes in their starting XI, if the series against Zimbabwe is to go by. Martin Guptill opened the innings along with Tom Latham. Both these batsmen gave their team good starts in their previous series and both look in great touch as well. Guptill has also proved a good bowling change for captain Williamson, as he was effective in getting much-needed breakthroughs for his team. So it is very likely that these two will open the batting for New Zealand against South Africa too. Next behind these will be Kane Williamson who was in terrific form against Zimbabwe, where he became the youngest player to score a hundred against all test playing nations. Kane Williamson was the second highest run-scorer in the series against Zimbabwe with 272 runs after Ross Taylor who scored 364, who will come in at No. 4 for the Kiwis. READ: Cricket South Africa to introduce racial quota in national teams

Middle Order:  The New Zealand middle-order was rarely exposed against Zimbabwe as all the run scoring work was done by the top-order. But having said this, Henry Nicholls and BJ Watling will surely form the middle-order for the visitors. They played together in practice game against Zimbabwe A where Nicholls and Watling scored half-centuries along with Ish Sodhi, who will make it to the starting XI. The leg-spinner was phenomenal with the ball as he scalped 8 wickets in 2 Tests becoming the second highest wicket-taker in the series. Mitchell Santner will be a sure name on the team sheet as he too had been impressive, claiming six wickets against Zimbabwe.

Lower-Order: New Zealand have the varied pace attack as Tim Southee and Trent Boult can find movement of the pitch while Neil Wagner can provide bounce. With such a strong pace attack already in hands, Williamson will certainly use the two spinners to exploit the South African batting lineup. Neil Wagner was the pick of bowlers as he shackled through the Zimbabwean batting order in both Tests and ended up as the leading wicket-taker in the series with 11 wickets. There will hardly be any change expected in the starting XI for the visitors as  they will look to keep their winning formula intact for the forthcoming series.

New Zealand Likely XI : Kane Williamson (c), Martin Guptill, Tom Latham, Ross Taylor, Henry Nicholls, Mitchell Santner, BJ Watling (wk), Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Neil Wagner, Trent Boult.

(Rohan A. Sawant is a reporter for CricketCountry. He loves Football, Cricket and is a die-hard Arsenal fan. He is an avid writer and has some knowledge about cricket and so he is trying his best to pour with his Laptop as he find writing with pen and paper very clumsy. You can follow him on Twitter @iswandering)