T20 World Cup | India desperate to break New Zealand jinx, bring World Cup campaign back on track

The buildup— curse against New Zealand

Team India suffered a major setback in their opening game of the T20 World Cup and the Virat Kohli’s men had to engulf what no other Indian team of the past had to deal with—a loss against Pakistan in the World Cup.

However, there was little disagreement from their side that Pakistan were the superior side on the night in terms of performances and hence there was overwhelming acceptance of the loss as one bad day in office.

Indian fans and the experts who rate them highly and one of the firm favourites to go all the way suggested India to take the defeat on their chin and move on quickly towards the challenge ahead.

But, is that so easy?

They are slated to face New Zealand in their next challenge and none of their supporters or pundits have to scratch their memories with great efforts to recall what has been the scoreline in the recent past.

After all, India’s fate in the World Cup games against New Zealand has been similar to what was Pakistan’s fate against India in the World Cup games before their last meeting. The last time Men in Blue defeated the Blackcaps in the premiere tournament, was when Rahul Dravid was their wicketkeeper-batsman, in a world that did not know T20 cricket.

They won the inaugural edition of the T20 World Cup and were defeated in the only game which was against the Blackcaps and the fortunes remained the same over the next one and a half decades. They were knocked out of the tournament in the ICC ODI World Cup in 2019 after facing a defeat in the semi-finals. To add to that, the agony and helplessness of Virat Kohli after losing the World Test Championship Final would be still alive in Indian fans’ memories.

It is with that baggage of horrible recent history that the Men in Blue will set foot on the park against the Kiwis to rescue their T20 World Cup journey after a turbulent start against Pakistan.

On the other hand, New Zealand too have played just one game and they too fell short of matching the form and firepower of Pakistan in their opening encounter.

Apart from Pakistan, who have won all their games, only Afghanistan have won one game in their group and one among New Zealand or India will have to consider that they might enter the NRR battle in their path to enter the semi-final stage of the WC.

Match details

India vs New Zealand, 

Match no.: 28, Super 12 Group 2

Date and time: Oct 31, 06:00 PM LOCAL, 07:30 IST, 02:30 GMT

Venue: Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai

Pitch details

The pitches at the Dubai International Stadium have not been consistent in nature to give absolute certainty to any side. Given its a night game, both Kohli and Williamson would look to chase down the target looking at the precedents in the tournament and a larger than life factor of dew.

However, it will be India, who stacked their side with a lot of spinners, to cover for all kinds of challenges, will be more desperate to win the toss so that they can extract turn before it becomes absolutely impossible to turn the ball on the pitch.

Virat Kohli has been terribly unlucky with the toss and he will have to find new luck to have both great bowling and batting conditions in the game.

Contest within the contest

Trent Boult vs Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma, who could do no wrong with the bat in white-ball formats a few months ago has been suddenly caught in the eye of a storm.

He was made to look ordinary and shell shocked by a swinging yorker from Shaheen Shah Afridi in the last game and India could not recover from that jolt.

Kohli was asked if Ishan Kishan would have been a better choice to open the batting and the Indian skipper was clearly irked by that question. However, his place in the side can’t become beyond questioning and he certainly needs to come back to his best to silence his critics and provide India with a platform to go big.

But, he has another challenge that can appear similar to Shaheen’s challenge, at least on the face of it, to conquer in the next game. It was not the yorker and nor the speed that did him in the last game, but it was the old dreaded swing that he could not get ready for on the first ball and Trent Boult is all geared up to “mirror” the same damage inflicted by Shaheen in that game.

"Not too sure what the plan is with what overs certain bowlers are bowling, but yeah the way Shaheen bowled the other night was... from a left-armer watching on I thought it was amazing. But, yeah, there's quality batsmen in that Indian line-up. Early wickets are definitely the focus for us as a bowling group. But, here, we just need to be nice and clear and nice and accurate where we are trying to put the ball. But, hopefully, from my point of view, it swings around a little bit and I can mirror what Shaheen did the other night (laughs),” Boult said.

Team News

India

India were fretting over the form and fitness of Hardik Pandya before the first game but Kohli backed his trusted lieutenant to do the job, with the bat. He looked out of touch as has been the case and with Pakistan bowlers having a night of their lives, India could not exploit the last couple of overs for a lot of runs.

However, Hardik’s unavailability as a bowler was a bigger conundrum for them and in a welcome sign, he has bowled some overs in the nets. He looked fit while running in but how much cushioning he would be able to provide to Kohli would be a matter of debate and the team management will once again have to bank on their gut feeling and confidence in Hardik’s ability with the bat.

India lacked the momentum with the bat in the middle and late phase of the game and hence there can be an argument over whether Kishan should come in for Pandya who is also out of form. The move however looks implausible as of now and the hard-hitting right-hander enjoys great confidence of the skipper and team.

India were also left second with the ball as both Mohammed Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar looked out of rhythm. Bhuvneshwar was more disappointing of the two as he struggled with both line and length from the word go and it has been the case for him in the recent past. There must have been a mulling from the team over playing Shardul Thakur, whose stock as a bowler and hard-hitting batsman has risen to unprecedented levels in the recent months over Bhuvneshwar, but Kohli backed his old horses to do the job.

Apart from the two positions, India have a settled unit and they will not look to make too many changes as Kohli has already suggested that India would not hit the “panic button” so early.

Probable XI

Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli (C), Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (WK), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar/Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah

New Zealand

New Zealand were rocked before their first game of the tournament as Lockie Ferguson got ruled out of the tournament and his replacement—Adam Milne, who could provide similar thunderbolts to the Blackcaps bowling attack could not be approved quickly enough.

New Zealand coach conceded that they were forced to play without Milne in the last game, but he is among the squad and raring to unleash his raw pace and bounce on Indian batsmen.

They were in favour of playing one spinner in Micthell Santner in the last game and it’s unlikely their approach would have changed so much. However, records of India’s heavyweights such as Kohli and Rohit against leg-spinners could make them think of Ish Sodhi as a compelling option.

Daryl Mitchell did not look out of sorts at the top of the order and should continue opening the innings against India as well.

James Neesham did not have a great game against Pakistan and New Zealand could go for Todd Astle, who can provide them batting depth along with a leg-spin option with the ball to cover the weakness of two of India’s top three batsmen.

Probable XI

Martin Guptill, Daryl Mitchell, Kane Williamson (C), Devon Conway, Glenn Phillips, James Neesham/Todd Astle, Tim Seifert (WK), Mitchell Santner, Adam Milne, Tim Southee, Trent Boult

CE Fantasy XI

Rishabh Pant, Martin Guptill, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Mitchell Santner, Varun Chakaravarthy, Mohammed Shami, Trent Boult and Jasprit Bumrah

Captain: KL Rahul

Vice-captain: Kane Williamson.