Stuart Broad insists he is not disappointed to lose England opener spot as he chases 400th wicket

Nothing, it is said, is certain in cricket but England, for an absolute certainty, will have a new new-ball pair in New Zealand’s inaugural day-night Test on Thursday. This is because the pair that last took a new ball for England was James Anderson and - no, not Stuart Broad, even though he was on 399 Test wickets, but the debutant legspinner Mason Crane, who has just been sent home with a bad back. At the time England took that third new ball in Sydney, Australia’s score was 499 for four and the temperature way above 40 degrees.

In the first Test at Eden Park it will be Anderson and Broad who open the bowling - or Anderson and Chris Woakes. Broad said the matter had not been decided and even if he was third seamer, he denied he would be disappointed. Broad admitted, however, he is desperate to get that 400th wicket to become the second England bowler to reach that landmark after Anderson; and he fancies he could have another of his hot streaks soon, now he has rectified his action; and he likes the pink Kookaburra balls so much that England could win this Test by having “a mad hour” with it.

Asked if he was disappointed not to have opened the bowling in England’s warm-ups in Hamilton last week, Broad’s teeth were not discernibly gritted when he said: “To be honest I wasn’t. But I’ve just spoken to Trev (Bayliss) and certainly no decision has been made for Thursday.

“What the thinking over the past few weeks has been is since South Africa 2016 our away form has been average (that is one way to describe losing 4-0 in Australia and India). I don’t think that’s just the bowling, we need to strive for improvement in pretty much all departments. Is there a way we can elongate pressure and be on the money for two hours in a session back-to-back through a Test-match day?”

And certainly there is a lot of merit in Anderson opening with Woakes, who has three overs before switching to Anderson’s end, while Broad takes a still-new ball as first change for a long spell.

“I want to be the person who you turn to when you need something exciting to happen - let’s try and break this Test match open,” Broad said. “That’s how I’ve played my cricket and (it) actually influenced some of the changes I made in February. I felt I got too technical, constantly every day looking at videos and what’s going on with my action.” Broad demonstrated how he had become chest-on when bowling round the wicket to lefthanders and nipping the ball away from them, so that when he went back over the wicket to right-handers - using the same action - he had lost his outswinger. Now he is more side-on and his outswinger is returning.

“My record against Ross Taylor is very good – I think I’ve got him nine times in Test cricket. I should be bowling his first 30 balls,” Broad said, and it is true: decent bounce on fourth stump against New Zealand’s most senior batsman is the way to go. “It’s that sort of thinking that’s coming into the bowling group rather than just thinking these two blokes have to take the same new ball. We’re going to try and be a bit more flexible.”

Whoever takes the new ball, it is going to be painted pink rather than dyed red and will have a life of its own. “It definitely plays different to the Dukes. The 75th over the other day (in Hamilton), it still had the writing on – which is unheard of. It consistently seems to do more and I can’t put my finger on it at all. I don’t know whether batsmen haven’t faced it as much? It just seems to get more plays and misses. And I think it definitely does more in that twilight period over this part of the world than England. In the Ashes we could have had a lot more wickets in that evening of day three [in Adelaide] – it really whizzed around. The drop-in pitch (in Auckland) generally has been really good but with these pink-ball games you only need a mad hour and you can break the Test match open.

“It (the pink Kookaburra) does come out of the fingers nice, it has a nice healthy seam on and it does seem to stay harder longer but I think the red Kookaburra reverses quicker. It doesn’t seem to get any blemishes on it at all – was that just Hamilton? It (the ground) was quite lush but I think you generally see more reverse with the red Kookaburra but hopefully this will just move (conventionally) all game.”

Ten years to the week have passed since Anderson and Broad played their first Test together - in New Zealand - after Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison had been dropped, and to his partner Broad paid handsome credit. “To think Jimmy has got more than 500 Test wickets is pretty incredible really and I’ve been standing at mid-on for most of them I think. Yeah, it’s been special to have that partnership and share some of the things that have gone, the Test match wins. Certainly seeing the way he’s gone about his business has helped me and there’s no way I’d be near 400 Test wickets without having the luck of playing in the same era as Jimmy Anderson. Absolutely not.

“You do look at fast bowlers who’ve had a period of success and it’s generally in a partnership. Pollock and Donald, Waqar and Wasim, Walsh and Ambrose, Botham and Willis, there’s something in a partnership that makes you thrive off each other, you’re pushing off each other, you’re always demanding deliverance of pressure together.” It is right that Joe Root is looking to life after Anderson and Broad, but let the day be postponed a while longer.