The allrounder is confident there will be a result on day five and believes the wicket has deteriorated sufficiently to bring his spin bowling into play
It must be up there with one of the most assured Test debuts of recent times.
Watching Michael Bracewell bat and bowl, it’s hard to fathom why he had played just three ODIs for New Zealand before making his Test debut here at Trent Bridge.
And the 31-year-old was confident enough to admit that the Blackcaps have never thought of a draw at any stage of this game. That may not be a revelation to those who saw some of their dismissals or run outs on the fourth day – even with the caveat that the third innings of a Test can be devilishly difficult to judge.
"No," he said, when asked about whether they’d considered a draw. "The draw just comes out of it at the end if the win’s not possible. We’re aiming to win a Test series against England. I think it’s also about the World Test Championship – we want to gain as many points and we can and ultimately win games of cricket.
"We’re pretty confident that there’ll be a result tomorrow."
That outlook is, at present, almost a mirror image of England’s approach under their Kiwi coach Brendon McCullum.
He believes the wicket has deteriorated enough to bring his spin bowling into play [Shaun Botterill/Getty Images]
"We knew the way Brendon likes to play his cricket, and we’ve seen over the first couple of Test matches they’ve really adopted that aggressive approach to playing the game. We’d be silly to not use that insight we have on Brendon’s thinking. It makes for a really exciting day tomorrow."
That said, New Zealand's overnight lead of 238 looks far from secure on such a fast-scoring ground against players conditioned to 350-plus run-chases in one-day cricket. Bracewell is going to play a major role.
Though someone with a bank of first-class experience, he only took up regular off-spin bowling a couple of years ago. So his assuredness, in terms of his control, but mainly his change of grip and seam position, was notable. He is encouraged too that the pitch will help him a bit more than in the first innings. But he will know that the England team will have had the chance to analyse his bowling in much greater detail by now.
"I think the wicket has deteriorated nicely for us. There seems to be a bit of turn and bounce there, Leachy [Jack Leach] showed that today, so we’re quite excited to get out there and bowl on it.
"I think the English team might come out with a few more plans to try and play me in this fourth innings, so it will be an exciting day to test my skills against some of the best players in the world."
Though New Zealand will probably be down one seamer tomorrow – due to Kyle Jamieson reporting back discomfort – Bracewell suggested the eight-day gap between this Test and the third at Headingley will mean none of the bowlers will hold back.
"We’ve got eight days between these two Test matches and the guys stepped up beautifully in the first innings with the ball, Trent in particular with his five wickets. It could be someone else who steps up tomorrow.
"We’re playing for our country and trying to win a game of Test cricket. I’m sure the determination will be there and we couldn’t fault that in the first innings.”
And what about his batting? After his 49 in the first innings, there was an even more entertaining 25 off 17 balls at a time when Test teams of yore would have been calmly batting the opposition out of the game.
Bracewell shimmied down the wicket to Leach, hauled him over midwicket, then advanced down to Matthew Potts to smash him over the top.
"I managed to get a couple of the middle there but unfortunately I couldn’t push on to a bigger score."
Nevertheless, T20 franchise team owners and a few county coaches will surely have taken note.
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