South African cricket skipper Faf du Plessis has made it quite clear to Black Caps batsman Neil Broom the pressure will be on when he makes his Test debut on Thursday at the Basin Reserve in Wellington.
The 33-year-old right-hander has been called in as cover for injured 81-Test veteran Ross Taylor, and du Plessis is expecting his bowlers to target the Test rookie.
Broom has already faced the Proteas this summer, managing scores of just two, two and zero in last month's one-day international series - a recent record which underlies du Plessis' confidence in his bowling attack.
"For me it's just a case that you've got a guy, you've managed to keep him quiet through the one-day series, and that as a team is pretty important," du Plessis said on Wednesday.
"It's important for us to put pressure on him, not make him feel comfortable and not giving him easy boundaries and runs so he settles."
Broom, who has played 30 ODIs and 11 Twenty20s for New Zealand, takes a solid first-class record into his first Test.
Since making his debut for Canterbury in 2002, he has crafted an average of 39.28, racking up 18 centuries, including a top score of 203 not out.
But he doesn't command the same respect as Taylor and New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson, who notched up his 16th Test century in the drawn first Test in Dunedin last week.
"I said before the series, if you can get rid of Williamson and Taylor, there's a lot of pressure on the rest of the batting line-up," du Plessis said.
"Obviously we couldn't get rid of Kane in the first Test and they were successful as a unit.
"So there lies the secret."
Missing paceman Trent Boult to injury as well as Taylor ramps up the pressure on New Zealand, du Plessis said.
"If you lose two key players like that, you definitely feel you're a bit light and you need everyone to put in really good performances for the team to do well."
The Proteas should field an unchanged line-up on a Basin Reserve wicket which isn't expected to offer any surprises.
