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Cricket News: IND vs NZ T20 World Cup: 4 major talking points | India vs New Zealand T20 World Cup: who will win
The seventh edition of the biggest carnival of T20 cricket, the ICC T20 World Cup has commenced in a grand fashion the United Arab Emirates.
Before the start of the tournament, a majority of the experts had predicted an Indian victory against Pakistan. But, surprising many, Pakistan defeated India for the very first time in a World Cup game by playing some outstanding cricket. They further went on to defeat New Zealand at Sharjah and thus currently are sitting on top of the table in the second group.
Therefore, the clash between India and New Zealand in Dubai is vital as both would like to open their account in the points table. There are a few key points to be discussed ahead of this face-off. Let’s have a look at them.
1. Toss will be crucial
If we look the recent history of Dubai, the chasing teams have won the game on all three occasions in this World Cup. The presence of dew in the second half made life difficult for Indian bowlers against Pakistan. On the other hand, the Pakistani batters felt more comfortable while batting under the wet conditions as the ball was coming nicely onto the bat off the dryish surface. Therefore, the toss is definitely going to play a big role and both the teams would like to bowl first in Dubai.
2. Who will step up for India with the ball?
The Indian bowlers failed to fetch a single wicket in the last game against Pakistan, which was really disappointing for the Indian fans. In the same game, Pakistan took three important wickets inside the powerplay itself which played a crucial hand in restricting India to a modest total of 151.
But the Indian opening bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami didn’t seem threatening at all. They weren’t consistent with the line and length and therefore couldn’t put an iota of pressure on the Pakistani openers. Shardul Thakur might come in place of one between these two bowlers.
Importantly, he picked 16 wickets from just 9 games (including 9 wickets in Dubai) in the second phase of IPL 2021. Further, in the spin department, Varun Chakravarthy looked very ordinary and therefore might be replaced by the experienced R Ashwin.
3. India should be very careful against the Kiwi attack
We have got enough evidence of the discomfort that the Indian top order goes through while playing the moving ball; the game against Pakistan being the most recent one. If we talk about the New Zealand bowling, they have some really brilliant operators of the new ball including the experienced duo of Trent Boult and Tim Southee.
Looking at the way Shaheen Afridi rattled the Indian top order with the new ball some days ago, it can be inferred that Trent Boult could be the biggest weapon for New Zealand to deal in the powerplay. Also, they might get tempted to include Kyle Jamieson in the playing XI considering the trouble he has caused to the Indian batters in recent times.
4. The curious case of Hardik Pandya
One of the biggest concerns for India at the moment is the batting form of Hardik Pandya. After having a great T20I series down under, Hardik is currently going through a lean patch with the bat. His performances were nothing short of horrible in the T20I series against England and Sri Lanka, as well as the second phase of IPL 2021.
Also, as Hardik is not contributing with the ball, he is certainly becoming a liability on the team. So, if they decide to bench Hardik (which is less likely as they are backing him), they probably will go with an extra batter in Ishan Kishan as a like-for-like replacement. This will add an extra LHB option, which might work well especially against the spin duo of Ish Sodhi and Mitchell Santner.
These are some major talking points ahead of this crucial encounter between India and New Zealand. Both these teams have some extraordinary T20 players and we can certainly expect a nail-biter on Sunday.
Written by Debashish Sarangi. Follow Debashish on Twitter today
