New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori today said the team considered the ground to be home of cricket in this country, but of late the grand old oval has not returned the love.
The hosts have suffered three heavy defeats in their past four matches here and, since 2000, have just won three of 15 tests, excluding two innings defeats of Bangladesh.
Pakistan, on the other hand, have never lost here. After draws in 1973 and 1985, they beat New Zealand by an innings and 12 runs in 1994, seven wickets in 2003 and 141 runs in 2009, and pace bowler Umar Gul said they had taken confidence from that record as they look to seal a first series win since 2006.
Vettori, meanwhile, could offer no reason for New Zealand's poor recent record here.
"I couldn't really say, I think the reason for loving it is that it's a pure cricket ground, you usually get a good knowledgable crowd, the facilities are great, and it just has that feeling you're here to play cricket and nothing else," he said today.
"It's a ground on days like this you love being here . . . I know the guys look at this as the home of cricket in New Zealand and really love coming here."
After being crushed by 10 wickets inside three days in the first test at Hamilton, it is no surprise the New Zealanders have focused being patient and batting time, and trying not to dwell too much, after being bundled out for 110 in their second dig at Hamilton.
"I think the words that (coach John Wright) has said have been great, he's hit the nail on the head on a number of occasions," Vettori said.
"We understand it was a poor performance but if we get too down in the dumps then we're not going to rectify it here. Wrighty has brought in that nice balance between tough words and building guys up."
New Zealand are yet to settle on a playing XI but there is a strong case for allrounder James Franklin to bat at No 6, with opener Tim McIntosh possibly missing out after five and three at Hamilton and the batsmen all moving up a spot.
Franklin's ability to bowl left-arm swing would be useful on a greenish looking wicket which is expected to favour the pace bowlers, and he has performed well in the past on his home deck with a five-for and two four-wicket hauls at test level.
"Sometimes if you can have that extra bowler in the likes of a Franklin then it allows Chris Martin or Tim Southee to be even more of a strike bowler," Vettori said.
"I thought they both bowled really well but they had a pretty big workload, so maybe the adition of Franklin would take a bit of that workload off and they would be fresher for it.
"I think whenever you get a player like James in terms of the allround package it's a real advantage so you always try to fit that type of player in the team. With the likes of Jesse Ryder not bowling and Kane (Williamson) not bowling as well as we would have liked in the last test, then the addition of an allrounder could be beneficial, but we will find out later on."
Vettori said the final weighting of the team would influence what they do should they win the toss, though it is expected both teams will want to bowl first.
Pakistan are likely to go with the same XI as Hamilton.
