'Still 20 wickets away is a lot of tours': New Zealand's Tim Southee on reaching 400 Test wickets milestone

Tim Southee. Pic/AFP

New Zealand captain Tim Southee feels that hitting the 400-wicket mark in the Test format is still a couple of tours away.

With 380 wickets, Southee is 20 shy from reaching a historic feat in his decorated career. He will become the 18th bowler to take 400 wickets in the Test format and New Zealand's second after Richard Hadlee.

Southee, 35, feels that the 400-wicket feat is still a couple of tours away from him, especially touring Asia, where spinners are favourites to dominate red-ball cricket.

"I guess over time, when you play for a long period, you're able to, I guess, come close to those, but still being 20 wickets away is a lot of tours, especially in this part of the world. But yeah, every game you're going out and trying to do your role and take some wickets for your side, and it'd be nice if you do achieve those milestones along the way," Southee said on the eve of the first Test, as quoted from ESPNcricinfo.

With New Zealand playing two Tests in Galle from Wednesday, spinners emerge as the most likely candidates to pick the majority of the wickets. Yet Southee feels that pacers will have a role to play in the series even though it is a tough challenge.

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"I think historically, here, in Galle in particular, spin has played a pretty big part. But as pace bowlers, if you can come here and do well, that's a tough challenge but a very rewarding challenge," Southee said.

"You look at the balance of the squad; we've got specialist spinners, we've got guys at the top of the order that can offer spin options, as well as four quality seam bowlers that offer different options as well. I think we've got a number of bases covered. I guess it's just figuring out what balance is the right one to go in within these conditions," he added.

New Zealand will play their first Test since March this year. Their hopes of preparing for the Sri Lanka series were ruined with rain playing spoilsport during their one-off Test against Afghanistan in Greater Noida.

"Yeah, it was disappointing [not to play against Afghanistan], but we still spent a week [in India], which we got some positives out of. We got some training in, some great training here. We spent some time together as a Test side - been a while since we've been together - so to have that time, and bond over that time in India was important as well," Southee said.

New Zealand brought in Rangana Herath as the bowling coach for their Asia tour. Glenn Phillips, Azaz Patel, and Mitchell Santner will form a formidable spin bowling attack for New Zealand.

While talking about the impact of Herath on the team, Southee said, "[He's] a guy who's taken over 100 Test wickets on this ground, and been a Sri Lankan great. We've got three left-arm spinners in the squad, who he's been working closely with along with our other spinners."

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