New Zealand pacer Tim Southee has predicted an exciting time for England under the new coach Brendon McCullum ahead of the three-match Test series against the reigning World Test champions.
The first Test would begin on June 02 at Lord's and the hosts will be expecting McCullum to revive their red-ball fortunes in the same way he did for New Zealand when he was their captain.
Despite his lack of red-ball coaching experience, McCullum was a surprising choice to succeed Chris Silverwood. He will be working alongside captain Ben Stokes, who too has very little experience of captaincy.
"It's exciting, obviously a great challenge for Brendon," Southee told reporters at Lord's on Tuesday (May 31).
The Kiwi seamer stated that he expects the new coach to instill in the English side the attributes that made him a successful captain and dynamic batter.
"He's a great man-manager and he loves to try to get the best out of people. I'm sure he'll be doing that here as well.”
"The way he played his cricket was exciting, fearless, and that's the way he is a person and I'm sure that's the way he is as a coach as well.”
"It will be an exciting brand of cricket, I'm sure. They (England) won't die wondering I'd imagine if the way he goes about things is anything to go by." the pacer, who has taken 338 wickets in 85 Tests added further.
Southee, on the other hand, dismissed the possibility of Brendon McCullum passing on too much 'inside information' to his new team.
"He knows us pretty well but I don't think there's too many secrets out there these days with the amount of footage and analyst stuff that's done as well."
When asked what it was about Kiwi cricket that drew England's attention, Southee answered, "I guess in New Zealand we've learnt to box above our weight for a long period of time.
"We're obviously challenged with just being a small country, the lack of people playing, and lack of resource. Just the Kiwi way is to muck in and get the best out of what we've got. That's not going to change, we're not all of a sudden going to have a lot of pool to choose from.
"I think it's just about making the most of what we've got. Sometimes less is more as well. And I think it's in our DNA to try, not only the cricket side, as Kiwis is to just enjoy it and make the most of what we've got."
(Agence France-Presse Inputs)
