Latham backs New Zealand's 'old-school' route to series win

New Zealand captain Tom Latham said his side will look to build on the momentum from their emphatic 253-run victory at The Oval as they chase a series win against England in the third Test at Trent Bridge.

The visitors responded strongly to Kane Williamson's retirement, announced five days before the second Test, with a complete team performance to level the series. Latham was pleased with how committed New Zealand remained to their style of play.

"Any series you step into, the end goal is to be there at the end with the results that you want," Latham said. "What's important for us is the work we do leading up to that point, and trying to stick to the things that we do well and stick to our style as best we can.

"It was a really good example of how we operated last week which was maybe slightly different to what the modern generation of Test cricket is, and how it's been played. It was a little bit more old-school, and trying to do things for long periods of time and keep being a threat for long periods of time.

"If it's required throughout this week to do something similar, then we'll obviously be looking to do that. We've got better and better throughout the series, and hopefully we can keep improving on those performances."

New Zealand will be without Kyle Jamieson for the series decider due to workload management following his return from a long injury lay-off. "He's certainly not injured; there's nothing there to worry about," Latham said. "It was always the plan for him to get through two Test matches."

Blair Tickner is expected to replace Jamieson, but Mitchell Santner is also in contention as New Zealand consider selecting a frontline spinner for the first time in the series. "For Mitch to get himself ready for this tour… was testament to the work that he put in," Latham said. "He's someone that spins the ball on many different surfaces. If we do go down that line, then we certainly know he'll be a threat throughout the five days."

Latham reflected on New Zealand's previous visit to Trent Bridge in 2022, when England chased down a target of 299 in just 50 overs. "If you look at that series as a whole, the results were probably a little bit closer than what the scoreboard suggests," Latham said. "In all three games, we were certainly in the hunt… There were three really good chases throughout that series from England."

Latham said the venue still presents similar challenges for captains. "It's probably a little bit similar – on a slightly different sized ground – to last week," Latham said. "It can be a quick-scoring ground with it being slightly smaller; a decent-sized block of pitches which you are usually faced with here in England.

"It's about trying to adapt to these conditions or the surface and ground as quickly as we can, and we've got a little bit of knowledge on how we operated here a few years ago. It's all about playing what's in front of us as much as we can, and we'll certainly be looking to do that over the next few days."