Sinclair learns on the go

2 March 2008

Mathew Sinclair on his most recent Test appearance against Bangladesh © Getty Images

Mathew Sinclair is preparing for his maiden Test against England admitting his brief experience of their attack has left him more confused than ever about their abilities.

Despite making a stunning 204 on his Test debut against West Indies nearly nine years ago, 32-year-old Sinclair is yet to face England at Test or one-day international level.

Given his inexperience against the tourists' bowling firepower, his recent innings of 47 against them for the Selection XI in Dunedin could be invaluable as he prepares for this week's first Test.

But despite spending 114 minutes at the crease, during which time he faced all of England's main bowlers with the exception of injured left-arm seamer Ryan Sidebottom, Sinclair learned very little – particularly about the talents of Steve Harmison.

Sinclair witnessed Harmison's full range – from his struggles early on when he was somewhat wayward, to his true ability as he improved to finish with 5-100.

"He was a little bit erratic," revealed Sinclair. "I felt it was quite hard to get some consistency from him from a batting point of view.

"If someone is spraying it everywhere you never really get a feel for where he's trying to put the ball. I couldn't get a feel for what he was trying to do.

"I hadn't faced Harmison before so I'll be speaking a lot with Flem (Stephen Fleming) over the next two days in terms of what he tries to do."

Sinclair remains one of the great enigmas of New Zealand cricket, having hit two double centuries in his first 12 Test appearances, but winning just 29 caps due to indifferent form.

Sinclair intends to draw on Stephen Fleming's advice and experience © Getty Images

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His most recent contribution in Test cricket - in the series against Bangladesh last month - was a little disappointing for a player of obvious talent.

He scored 76 runs in two innings but, with Peter Fulton injured, he knows he must take his chance in the forthcoming series.

"The yo-yo ride continues," he conceded. "I've put a lot of hard work in over the winter and I was lucky enough to play against Bangladesh. I've been presented with an opportunity to hopefully try and do well against the English.

"This week has been really good as it's given me a really good idea of how they're trying to bowl, and also from a batting point of view what I need to get out of it. It was a good little trial period really.

"It was disappointing not to go on with it after scoring 47, but Monty (Panesar) beat me on the day so fair play to him. It would have been good to post another hour out there.”

He added: "If you look at the batting side of things there wasn't a heck of a lot of good things coming out of that Bangladesh series other than Matt Bell with his hundred and Flem with his 80. There were a lot of in-betweens really.

"I've moved on from there now and I'm looking forward to spending a lot of time in the middle."