Zimbabwe have been waiting for too long to show how hungry they are: Ntini

Graeme Cremer, the Zimbabwe captain, has hailed former South African pacer Makhaya Ntini's positive influence on his team ahead of the first Test against New Zealand. Ntini, who joined Zimbabwe as their bowling coach in January this year, was later named as their interim head coach last month. The former South African bowler, according to Cremer, has helped his teammates to express themselves on the field.

"It's been good for us to have Makhaya," Cremer said on Wednesday (July 27). "We were set in our ways for a long time where we didn't express ourselves. Makhaya, with the way he is, has brought out a few characters in the team which can only be good for us."

Ntini himself is excited about Zimbabwe returning to the Test fold after almost two years and insisted his side are 'hungry' to play the longest format of the game. "My boys are ready," he said. "I say that because they have been waiting for too long to play Test cricket. This country is a Test country and we don't have enough of those. They have been waiting for too long to show how hungry they are."

The hosts have been depleted before the series by a series of injuries to their leading players. Opener Tino Mawoyo has been ruled out of the first Test due to a thumb injury sustained in the warm-up match against the visitors, but their biggest concern would be the absence of their frontline seamers Tinashe Panyangara and Tendai Chatara. While Panyangara was not even named in the squad after failing to recover from his back injury, Chatara was ruled out after injuring his ankle during the warm-up game.

Ntini was asked if he was nervous going into the match against a strong New Zealand batting line-up with a second string bowling attack. "Me? No, I am not nervous," he shot back. "It's them that are going on the field. For me, it's just to motivate them, to show them the way and make them believe. If they get selected, it is a very good chance to show what they are capable of."

The 39-year-old is also hopeful of a massive improvement in standards over the next three years so that they don't have to play the qualifiers in order to be part of the main draw in ICC tournaments.

"We are bringing new things in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe has been one of the countries that has been neglected for quite some time. If they get an opportunity, they will utilise it to their full potential. Every player hates being part of a country that needs to qualify for a bigger stage. My vision is that between now and 2019, Zimbabwe are not in a position to play qualifiers before they play in the bigger set-up."

New Zealand themselves are preparing for a new beginning under Kane Williamson, who will be leading them in a Test match for the first time following Brendon McCullum's retirement earlier this year. Even though tougher challenges await them in the form of South Africa next month, Williamson is currently focussed on accessing the conditions at Bulawayo, which hasn't played host to a Test match in five years.

"There may not be a huge amount of pace and bounce, so the word 'attacking' [could mean something different]. We would like to attack and we'll certainly try to with bat and ball but at the same time, patience, and how you look to skin it, is the challenge," Williamson said.

"How attacking looks on some of these surfaces, it may not be four slips and two gullies because there might be no point in doing that. It might be looking at how you want to target different areas, where you want to limit scoring. And then if you have an opportunity and you take that wicket, certainly you go all out and try and get another couple. But we know it doesn't happen too quickly on these sorts of surfaces."

Cremer echoed Williamson's thoughts by terming the pitch 'a good batting wicket'. "Once you get in, you can score a lot of runs but it also a wicket where sometimes it is hard to get in," he said. "That first 18 balls you're not sure on the wicket, because it is probably a bit slower than normal," he concluded.