'Still 20 wickets away is a lot of tours': Southee on reaching 400 Test wickets

New Zealand captain Tim Southeefeels that hitting the 400wicket mark in the Test format is still a couple of tours awayWith 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 Zealands second after Richard HadleeSouthee 35 feels that the 400wicket feat is still a couple of tours away from him especially touring Asia where spinners are favourites to dominate redball cricketI guess over time when you play for a long period youre 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 youre going out and trying to do your role and take some wickets for your side and itd be nice if you do achieve those milestones along the way Southee said on the eve of the first Test as quoted from ESPNcricinfoWith 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 challengeAlso Read Jasprit Bumrah is brilliant across all three formats at the moment Tim SoutheeI 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 thats a tough challenge but a very rewarding challenge Southee saidYou look at the balance of the squad weve got specialist spinners weve 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 weve got a number of bases covered I guess its just figuring out what balance is the right one to go in within these conditions he addedNew 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 oneoff Test against Afghanistan in Greater NoidaYeah 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 weve been together so to have that time and bond over that time in India was important as well Southee saidNew 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 ZealandWhile talking about the impact of Herath on the team Southee said Hes a guy whos taken over 100 Test wickets on this ground and been a Sri Lankan great Weve got three leftarm spinners in the squad who hes been working closely with along with our other spinnersThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever