The cricket board of New Zealand has finalized the calendar and venues for the New Zealand vs Sri Lanka test series 2023 in March. Sri Lanka cricket authority has already declared a tour to New Zealand in the coming month of March 2023 in order to play 2 test matches with New Zealand. The test series between New Zealand and Sri Lanka will kick off with the first test match on 9 March 2023 at Hagley Oval, Christchurch, then the teams will move to Basin Reserve, Wellington in order to play the last test match of the series.
Most probable, under the captaincy of Kane Williamson, New Zealand will welcome Sri Lanka whereas the Lankan side will visit Sri Lanka under Dimuth Karunaratne. Dimuth is a Sri Lankan batsman who loves to open and has already contributed more than 6000 runs in the test for his team from 82 test matches. On the other hand, Kane Williamson has also got a plethora of experience in test cricket and is known as one of the best captains in the cricketing world.
Currently, New Zealand is listed at the 5th position whereas Sri Lanka is holding the 7th position in the ICC Test team ranking. It is interesting that Sri Lanka has never been able to top the ICC test team ranking table in the history of test cricket, Sri Lanka gave their best in 2002 when they achieved 2nd place in the ICC test team ranking.
The pitch of New Zealand is very different from other parts of the world for playing test cricket and playing test cricket in New Zealand is unique. During the first innings, the team losses their wickets very quickly and after the end of the first innings, players experience a change in the behavior of the pitch. The pitch which was not easy to bat suddenly started behaving in the favor of the batters and look easy to bat, and thus it turn out to be unpredictable for both teams.
In terms of head-to-head in test cricket, New Zealand and Sri Lanka have faced each other in 36 test matches where New Zealand won 16 matches and lost 9 matches with 11 draws, showing that New Zealand has got an upper hand in test cricket. Overall, New Zealand has appeared in 458 test matches, out of which they achieved victory in 103 matches and lost 181. On the other hand, Sri Lanka has appeared in 307 tests where they won 98 matches and faced defeat in 117 matches. So, it will be interesting to watch how Sri Lanka will perform on the unpredictable pitches of New Zealand.