It has been more than two months since I last played international cricket and the break is just what was needed after that incredible summer.
Like everyone in the squad, I feel refreshed and raring to go again to try to bring us more success on the field.
I have had to draw a line under the summer of 2019.
It has been and gone.
Even though it is a time I will remember very fondly and with great satisfaction, I have got to look forward to new challenges and delivering once more.
There is so much to focus on in a busy winter with eight Tests in New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka that will ask lots of different questions of us – and we want to be able to answer them.
As good as the summer was at times, you can’t rest on your laurels and keep looking back.
This is an important series for us because we want to start winning away from home more often.
A goal of ours is to be the No.1 Test team in the world, and winning series away from home massively helps towards achieving that. It is a journey we’re on over the next two or three years, and it starts here.
This series doesn’t count towards the World Test Championship, but that is irrelevant.
You are playing for your country, you are representing a lot of people, you are playing for your family and yourself, so nothing but 100 per cent will do.
I spent a week in Christchurch with my Kiwi family before the Test guys got out here which was great. It was lovely to reconnect with the family.
And having a traditional Maori powhiri welcome here in Tauranga was class and something that not many people experience.
I have my New Zealand roots and Maori heritage in the family, but leaving here at a young age to move to the UK means that I hadn’t experienced that before, so it was cool to be a part of it this time.
With the Test team we really want to establish a squad and an XI that is a bit more settled, like we managed to do for the one-day team.
The Test side has changed around a bit more in the past few years as people have come into the team, not done so well and then been left out for someone else.
With all that chopping and changing the results have been inconsistent, so we now hope we can find that consistency as players and as a team to get settled.
There are a few new faces on this tour, but from what I’ve seen of them in the warm-up games and in training, they look ready to go, even though they are young. You forget that they are 21, 22, 23 years old.
It is exciting to watch lads like Dom Sibley, Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope go about their business. It looks like they know their games inside out and you want to see them fly.
There is talk of it being a new era with Chris Silverwood taking over as head coach, but I think Trevor Bayliss has left his mark on the team and coaches, who have continued to provide a relaxed environment for the players to feel comfortable.
Spoons (Silverwood) has a chilled nature too, but the one difference is his planning for the future and the way he is distinctly trying to build something over time.
Trevor was very much about the here and now, ‘Let’s get out there and do it and we’ll see how it goes’, but Spoons has a vision for where he wants to take this Test team and we’re all on board with it. We can’t wait to get it started this week.
