How veteran batter Henry Nicholls made his way back into the Black Caps test team

Saturday, 16 May 2026

After falling out of favour in late 2023 and missing most of the 2024 test season, the 34-year-old Henry Nicholls has forced his way back into the squad for the upcoming tour of England.

Nicholls earned his spot after being named men’s domestic player of the year, scoring 870 runs and averaging almost 100, while captaining Canterbury to the Plunket Shield title.

He credits his return to a 'resilience piece,' focusing on enjoying his cricket with Canterbury rather than fixating on a recall. He noted that captaincy actually helped his batting.

It’s the little things Henry Nicholls missed the most.

A regular in the New Zealand test team from when he broke into the team in 2016 until 2023, it was the things he made sure to never undervalue.

“Coming back in and seeing the guys, and wearing the fern on your chest, all those things I never took for granted,” Nicholls said.

“But when you’ve done it, and you don’t get to do it for a bit, it’s what you miss and it’s what keeps driving me.”

Seated on a bench alongside Bert Sutcliffe Oval, Henry was speaking before taking part in another training session at New Zealand Cricket’s High Performance Centre on a mild autumn’s day in Lincoln on Thursday.

Indeed, the 34-year-old left-handed batter is back and preparing for his third tour of England, after forcing his way back into the Black Caps red ball squad on the back of a blistering domestic summer.

With 58 tests and 10 centuries to his name, and an average a tick below 40, Nicholls maintains he didn’t give up on clawing his way back into the mix after falling out of favour at the end of 2023.

But it’s fair to say most Black Cap fans probably thought Nicholls’ test playing days were behind him.

While he played a handful of ODIs in 2024, he didn’t play test cricket that year, and his return for two tests in Zimbabwe last year, when the Black Caps were down on fire power, wasn’t followed with selection for the home test series against the West Indies last November and December.

Yet here Nicholls is, ready to pack his bags for a much-anticipated three-test series against England, which will be preceded by a four-day test against Ireland in Belfast.

“That resilience piece for me has been massive. Not trying to focus on trying to get back in the team, but if I could just do as well as I could for Canterbury, and if it works out, it works out, and if it doesn't, I've enjoyed the journey,” he said.

“Now that I'm back in, that's the focus. It's just about enjoying the environment, preparing to perform really well.”

That’s exactly what Nicholls did when he returned to his roots and played for Canterbury, particularly the past summer, when he was named men’s domestic player of the year.

Nicholls put up staggering first class numbers, amassing 870 runs at an average of 96.67, highlighted by an unbeaten 226, as he captained Canterbury to Plunket Shield glory.

“Nothing specifically,” Nicholls said when asked if he made changes to his technique.

“That [captaincy] might have taken a bit of focus away from just the batting side of things. Actually, when you’re in the field, sweating a bit more with what the bowlers are doing and being a bit more engaged with them. I certainly enjoyed it.”

So did the selectors, picking Nicholls in the 15-man squad for the English series, which starts on June 4 at Lord’s.

Minus the IPL contingent, the squad has spent two weeks preparing at Lincoln, operating with the Dukes balls they’ll use against both Ireland and England.

“Very good,” Nicholls said of how the bowlers in Lincoln - Will O’Rourke, Michael Rae, Nathan Smith, Ben Sears and Kristian Clarke - performed after swapping the Kookaburra for the darker Dukes.

“If you asked most of the batters, it's been a good, tough week. Again, you've got to look at the stocks we've got here, the height, the skill, the pace, and that's without the guys at the IPL. It's certainly been a good challenge for the batters.”

Asked specifically about O’Rourke, who is not long back from a lengthy break due to a stress fracture in his back, Nicholls said he had been “incredibly uncomfortable” to face.

“I know that when England played him last time, I heard Ben Stokes talk about how uncomfortable he was to face, and he hasn't got any less so with nine months out of the game. If anything, he's come back stronger, he's looking fantastic.”

In addition to the Dukes being darker than the Kookaburra, Nicholls said it felt harder and required minor adjustments for both batters and bowlers.

And while Nicholls pointed out retired English seamers Stuart Broad and James Anderson were renowned for swinging the Dukes, he said their current crop of bowlers preferred to utilise a wobble seam approach.

“For our guys here, it's a bit of a balance. Some guys like that and some guys are a bit more swing bowlers. It definitely still swings, but it just seems to be on the flatter wickets. Generally, guys try and wobble it off the surface rather than in the air.”

Nicholls checked out England’s squad, named for the first test only, on Thursday morning before training.

While English media are touting it as a new era due to ‘Bazball babe’ Zak Crawley being dropped, the veteran wasn’t convinced the days of so called ‘Bazball’ were over after it back-fired in spectacular fashion during the Ashes last summer.

“I don't know. I think that will be the interesting part as well. You've got to look at their team and the amount of world class players they've got.

“Ashes series, we can't probably comprehend the magnitude of them, when they go and they don't win we see the fallout of that. Any time test teams play at home, you hold a lot of pride in that…I know for them, those three tests, as much as they are for us, are really important.”

Fixtures

May 27–30: Only test v Ireland; Stormont, Belfast

June 4–8: First test v England; Lord’s, London

June 17–21: Second test v England; The Oval, London

June 25–29: Third test v England; Trent Bridge, Nottingham