Haven't been to the stadium much lately so haven't seen it. Basin keeping me busy. If it plays anything like the past it will have a tennis-ball-like bounce which makes it quite hard scoring straight. Coupled with the long straight boundaries, unless the boss decides to bring them up a bit. I would probably bowl first because it gives you the chance to get wickets while the other team are figuring out how it's playing and at the same time you get a look at how it's coming on. Also the lads up there have told me there is still a lot of grass on it. We (my boss) doesn't really have the art of portable pitches worked out like Eden Park do to be honest. Just hoping it's a good even match with plenty of runs, going in our favour of course.
Talking to the teams today sounds like Samit Patel will move out and probably Woaks to come in and no changes from the NZ team at this stage.
Test prep hasn't really started - other than picking out a strip and trying to protect it.