Australia will head into the second test at Christchurch as a team on a serious mission. The mission is about the most prestigious title in test cricket – the number one rank. Teams often intensely fight it out in order to peak and reach the pinnacle of test cricket. A victory, or even a draw in Christchurch, will put Australia at the top, displacing Virat Kohli’s India to the second spot.
Skipper Steve Smith admitted in the pre-match conference that attaining the number one rank was the ultimate goal of Australia. “We want to be No.1 in the world in every format of the game and if we win this week we’ll be No.1 in two of those formats,” Smith said. “For us, we do want to win away from home as well. That’s massive on my agenda and the guys’ agenda and I thought we played really well in the first Test match to adapt to the conditions and I think it’s going to be important for us going forward to make sure we’re doing that a lot,” Smith said.
The run machine also added that Australia’s hunger would not just end with the number one rank. Smith said that Australia would be looking to do well overseas on a consistent basis. “For me it’s satisfying [if we] get that ranking. I think that would be really good for us as a group. But when you’re number one, you want to stretch that distance between the teams. For us that’s making sure we play well away from home.”