England’s conquest of all comers – well, almost, because hats off to you, Ireland – on their way to grabbing the 2022 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup prize underlined why that team and its cricket setup is playing a different sport. Two teams that Jos Buttler’s team brushed aside on the way to becoming dual white-ball champions – and who were both crushed in the semi-finals – now face off for the first of six matches against each other in 12 days, across the Tasman Sea in New Zealand.
Kane Williamson’s home team and Hardik Pandya’s touring side have issues, of that there is no doubt. After struggling during the T20 World Cup, fans of the Black Caps are entitled to mull over whether New Zealand’s best batsman of his era should even be playing this format. In 12 T20I innings this year, Williamson averages 34.72 but his strike-rate of 199 underlines the struggles he has endured. Martin Guptill was part of New Zealand’s World Cup squad but did not get a game, and now he and Trent Boult – released from his New Zealand Cricket contract recently – are not part of these six matches.
The players chosen to replace Guptill and Boult are Finn Allen (eight ODIs and 23 T20Is old) and Blair Tickner, aged 29, and there is a lingering feeling in New Zealand that the same players are being given chances. What is New Zealand’s bench strength? Can this team move into the next phase without Guptill and Boult and prepare for an era post Williamson, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi and Jimmy Neesham?
India are coming off a ten-wicket hammering by England. It has been nine years since MS Dhoni’s team lifted the 2013 Champions Trophy. Since then, at ICC tournaments, India have been eliminated at the semi-final stages (2015, 2016, 2019, 2022) and at the summit (2017, 2021) and failed to make it past the league phase of last year’s T20 World Cup. Change is needed, but when will it come?
For the tour of New Zealand there is no Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, R Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Dinesh Karthik or Axar Patel. Hardik Pandya is the captain and Rishabh Pant, who played just two games in Australia, is his deputy. There is youthful talent in the current squad, which needs to be backed. These three T20Is are a good drawing board for Indian cricket to revamp its white-ball cricket with an eye on the 2023 ODI World Cup and the T20 World Cup the next year.
SCHEDULE
T20Is: Friday November 18, Wellington; Sunday November 20, Mount Mauganui; Tuesday November 22, Napier.
ODIs: Friday November 25, Auckland; Sunday November 27, Hamilton; Wednesday November 30, Christchurch.
TEAM NEWS
NEW ZEALAND
Allen will once again open, and Tickner should slot in for Boult. The spin-bowling allrounder Michael Bracewell could get a look-in, but given India’s struggles against Adil Rashid it is foreseeable that Sodhi plays.
New Zealand likely 11 (first T20I): 1 Finn Allen, 2 Devon Conway (wk), 3 Kane Williamson (capt), 4 Glenn Phillips, 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 Jimmy Neesham, 7 Mitchell Santner, 8 Tim Southee, 9 Lockie Ferguson, 10 Ish Sodhi, 11 Blair Tickner
INDIA
Lots to pick from. India have given the uncapped Shubman Gill a chance in the T20I squad but given that Deepak Hooda, Sanju Samson, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant have all been tried as openers in 2022, it is unlikely that Gill will get a game. The recalled Ishan Kishan looks a certainty to open given he’s scored 430 runs in T20Is this year. Hooda was part of the World Cup squad and should be given an opportunity in the top three as well, which leaves one of Iyer and Samson to sit out.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar is in the T20I squad but seeing as he played all matches of the World Cup, he could be given a breather at the start. Yuzvendra Chahal should get his first match since September, and Washington Sundar’s return means he is the second spinner.
India likely 11 (first T20I): 1 Ishan Kishan, 2 Sanju Samson, 3 Deepak Hooda, 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Hardik Pandya (capt), 6 Rishabh Pant (wk), 7 Washington Sundar, 8 Harshal Patel, 9 Umran Malik, 10 Arshdeep Singh,11 Yuzvendra Chahal
PREDICTION
New Zealand are formidable at home, but India will know they can be beaten because when they last went to the country in 2020, the result was 4-0 in their favour. Despite some key personnel resting, Pandya’s team has the potential to defeat the Black Caps. Expect the T20Is to go to India 2-1 and the ODIs to New Zealand, 2-1.
