Brisbane certainly wasn’t the start we’d hoped for.

As you’d expect, the boys were disappointed after our performance at the 'Gabba, which was far from our best outing. It’s difficult to know why we weren’t quite there with bat or ball, but luckily it’s a three-match Test series and we get another crack.

We always analyse what we need to work on after any Test, but we also look at the positives we can glean from it. While the result was certainly not one of them, there were plenty of other things we will take away.

The obvious highlight was Kane’s first innings century. Brendon said it’s the best he’s seen during his time in BLACKCAPS uniform – not bad praise from someone with 95 odd Tests under his belt. I’m hard pushed to think of a better one myself. It was a simply superb innings from a batsman with one of the best techniques in world cricket.

There were other aspects of our performance I found encouraging, but another key thing that pleased me is the way the team has stuck together as a unit through the disappointment. As a group, we’ve talked a lot about making sure we don’t get too high when we win or too low when we lose. We have to stay level and continue to believe in our game, which has put us in good stead over the last couple of years.

One thing we’ve said to the guys is that you don’t become a bad team overnight. The players in this squad have the ability to bounce back and try do something special in the next two Test matches. We know we can be better than we were in Brisbane and I’m confident that we will be.

Outside of playing, Australia itself so far has been about as you’d expect: warm. Apart from the odd thunderstorm, it’s been a pretty sharp increase in temperature and Perth is another step up still. With the different places we travel to the boys are used to it these days.

The WACA is an exciting place to play cricket. Both sets of bowlers will be eager to use the pace and bounce on offer and we simply can’t wait to get out there. We know how much interest there is back home in the series and the level of support we get is not lost on the players, so can keep supporting us and we’ll do our level best.

Mike H