When these two countries face off each other, the majority of the fans from India do not worry too much about the outcome, as most of us pick our second favorite team as the Kiwis aka Black Caps. Though India is riding on an unbelievable form by winning 10/11 T20 matches including a whitewash against the mighty Australia in Australia, their record against New Zealand so far is 0-6. Yes, you’ve read it right. India is yet to register a win against the New Zealand in the shortest format. Lets see the strength and weaknesses of both the teams.
Brendon McCullum retiring right before the World Cup is a huge setback as he ais a player capable of winning the matches for the team, hands down. Given his experience in the Indian conditions courtesy IPL, he will be badly missed by the players, management and also the fans. Having said that, Martin Guptill, who was unsold in the recently concluded IPL auction is on a form of his life as he has been mercilessly taking on any given attack in the last year and a half. His form will be crucial at the top along with Colin Munro.
The ever dependable classy Kane Williamson, crowd’s favorite Ross Taylor, and the big hitter Corey Anderson power the middle order. Grant Elliot and Luke Ronchi are more than enough to give headache to the opposition in the lower middle order. The black caps do possess a formidable pace attack with the likes’ of Mitchell McClenaghan, Tim Southee, and Trent Boult.
The only visible weakness in the New Zealand line up would be the lack of world class tweakers and their ability to counter Ashwin’s spell.
On paper, India has ticked all the boxes. They have an elite opening pair in the form of Dhawan and Rohit, and Virat Kohli is yet to find a challenge in this year. Raina, Yuvraj, and Dhoni will take care of the middle order and the arrival of Pandya makes things easy for the captain to juggle around with his batting line-up. Having said that, Pandya’s inability to see off quality pace bowling is still a worry. Jadeja, who was supposed to be an all-rounder, is yet to have a go with the bat, this year. If the top order fails like it did against Pakistan, then this middle order will have a mountain to climb.
Adding to these, we are yet to field a quality third seamer on the side. If Shami plays ahead of Nehra, then it would be interesting to see, whether Dhoni goes with Pandya/Harbajan. It all might come down to the nature of the pitch, but going with five regular bowlers who could raise their hands to deliver at any point in time is still a worry.
Given the number of left handers in the NZL side, Harbhajan might be included in the 11, but in place of whom will be the tricky question to answer.
So, at the end, it will come to the traditional way of battling. The classic case of Indian spinners against the big hitting New Zealander’s and given the shortcomings of Indian batsmen against the left arm fast bowlers.
http://www.indiaglitz.com/india-v-new-zealand--preview-tamil-news-154723.html
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