T20 World Cup | Stuttering Kiwis not the biggest challenge, but count them out at your own risk
It has not been smooth sailing for the New Zealand team, post their tour cancellation against Pakistan early this September. Individually for players too, it wasn’t a great going barring Lockie Ferguson, who too lost his shape in the IPL final and a one-match wonder Jimmy Neesham. Kyle Jamieson was not part of his XI, Tim Southee did good in the chances he got, but not brilliantly well enough to keep his spot in the team and captain Kane Williamson had troubles of his own. Thus to assume that much like their glories of the past where they have been able to make it to the last four stages of four out the last five ICC events since 2015, they would make it to the semis here too, might be a gross misjudgement even when they are in probably the lightest or weakest Super 12 group ever. There are reasons for this argument. Major challenges Kane Williamson's form and fitness big worry Willaimson in his last 10 innings has been able to get past the 50 run landmark only once. Although the saying, ‘form is temporary and class is permanent’ was developed primarily for someone like him, but the fact that it is not just the form that he is suffering from makes the Kiwi campaign look all the more gloomy. The 31-year-old has been nursing an elbow injury for quite some time now and carrying it to the World Cup, where one more aggravation to it could most probably end the campaign for him (worst-case scenario, if it happens in a big game, his team’s too). Hence it has now become a risky affair for the team, which till August, before their Bangladesh tour was touted to be among the top three contenders for the trophy. Picking a suitable XI Williamson’s fitness and form are not the only challenges that the Blackcaps are facing. Picking a suitable XI for UAE wickets is another challenge that they would have to negate, which could very well mean deviating from their four-pronged pace attack, which is also probably their biggest strength. Now they would look to play two spinners in games that would not involve Pakistan and most probable Afghanistan as even Indians sem to struggle against left-arm and leg-spin which Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi bowl respectively. Thus either among Kyle Jamieson or Trent Boult, depending on the form of the players would have to make way for two spinners to play together. Spinning wickets While New Zealand have spinners who are capable of playing spin but do they have batters who are capable of tacking spin, especially the spin that three Asian nations in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan will bring in on the dry pitches of the Emirates? That’s a million dollars question given the fact how Phillips, Neesham and even Williamson to an extent struggled in the recent IPL. Devon Conway and Tim Seifert, the two players that the Kiwis would be banking on in a huge way have not been prolific against spin either and if Warm-up matches are a criterion to go by since these players have not played in UAE so far, then the Blackcaps might be in for a huge surprise in their matches at Sharjah and Abu Dhabi against Pakistan and Afghanistan. Then does it mean that everything is going bad for the Kiwis? Don’t they have anything to hang on to? All-rounders: A huge strength Here comes their biggest strength. The team is brimming with people who can contribute with both bat and ball in the same game. Be it Neesham, Daryl Mitchell, Santner, Jamieson or even Southee and Sodhi, all of them are capable of hitting 20-30 runs in a game and then rolling over their arm to bowl 3-4 overs, giving skipper Williamson a lot of variety in the attack. Even the ones who might not make it to the playing XI such as Mark Chapman and Todd Astle are more than capable enough all-rounders in the shortest format of the game. Thus along with the big-hitting abilities of Phillips and Nesham, the inning-anchoring abilities of Conway and Willaimson and the wicket-taking abilities of Boult and Southee, it is the all-rounders that would be key to the Kiwi success in this World Cup. Squad Kane Williamson (c), Todd Astle, Trent Boult, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Martin Guptill, Kyle Jamieson, Daryl Mitchell, Jimmy Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee Probable XI Devon Conway, Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson (c), Glenn Phillips, Tim Seifert (wk), Jimmy Neesham, Kyle Jamieson, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult Recent form and UAE experience As a team ew Zealand haven’t really played much cricket since the World Test Championship. The team that did play five T20Is in Bangladesh is totally different from the one playing this World Cup. Hence the only standards of judging are the team form is the warm-up games where they were good enough against Australia, but eventually lost courtesy a Mitchell Starc special with the bat, bit against England their batting was exposed, although late blows from Astle and Sodhi made the picture look less worrisome at the end. But being 103-8 in only the 13th over in a T20 game is something to really worry about. The Kiwi team has not played much T20I cricket in UAE and of the seven matches that they have played against Pakistan from 2009 to 2018, the Blackcaps have lost six of them, meaning that they are not really good at winning when it comes to UAE. But all that could change if their key players fire at the right time. Players to look out for Devon Conway The 30-year-old South Africa born has had a stellar record in the shortest format of the game averaging at almost 60 in the 14 games that he has so far played for the Blackcaps. He has a strike rate of more than 150 and the best score of unbeaten 99 and with four fifties in his kitty, he is the batter that no bowler would like to face and every team would like to have. Although his recent form has not been that great with him accumulating only 203 runs in his last nine T20 innings, one which was a 70*, but given the fact that South Africans playing for other nations such as Custis Camphor for Ireland and Chris Greaves for Scotland have done amazingly well in this World Cup, the Kiwi supporters down under would be hoping that he might be in the same line. Ish Sodhi The biggest bowling asset for the New Zealand team would be their leg spinner, Ish Sodhi. He has had a lot of experience now since he last played the shortest format World Cup in 2016 and the accuracy of his deliveries have gotten better over the years as well. Even in the last warm-up game, the leggie took 3-26 to restrict England under 170. In his last 10 games, the Ludhiana born Aucklander has 12 wickets to his name and his economy has been below seven making it a great prospect for the Kiwis to play him all games. His partnership with Santner could well be the deciding factor on whether the Blackcaps will move to Semi-Finals or not. How far can they go? Based on the current form and the competition that they have in their group, the biggest battle that the Kiwis will face would be in Sharjah against Pakistan in their very first game. If they are able to succeed in it they might as well get to the semi-final and if not, it would be very difficult for them to beat India thereafter. However considering that they always pull a surprise or two in ICC events, counting them out just yet wouldn’t be a wise piece of advice.
 "Abhishek Singh")
