New Zealand is one of the dark horse in the upcoming ICC World Cup where India, England and Australia are considered to be favourites. However, their captain Kane Williamson isn’t at all worried about not having enough game time prior to the mega event. He further said that few practice matches in their home have helped them prepare for the World Cup.
“The nature of having a tournament on the other side of the world meant we didn’t have our domestic competitions going on or any ODI series in our own country,” Williamson expressed. “That’s just the nature of the beast but we had plenty of players involved with the IPL and some warm-ups in Australia, which was very beneficial.”
“The international game is evolving and ever-changing – you’re playing all over the world at different times, so you’re just trying to prepare mentally as well as you can.” he added.
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In the last edition, New Zealand reached the World Cup final but lost against Australia. This year also the captain was confident about his side.
“We have a few guys who were in last World Cup so have some experience, but there are lots of new players also, which is good,” Williamson added. “There has been a lot of talk around rankings, favourites and underdogs. But all the teams are balanced – on the day anything can happen, which should mean some very exciting cricket. We want to be playing our brand and style of cricket as well as we can, so that’s our focus for the next six or seven weeks,” captain further explained.
“We have spoken a lot about the batting, but a lot of it also depends on how the bowling attacks operate to keep the batsmen in check. There might be some freeflow play but we are playing a lot in similar grounds where the pitches and blocks might deteriorate, where some are suited for the bat, some will be suited for the ball,” New Zealand captain added later.
Also read: Morgan says they’re as best prepared as they possibly could be
New Zealand will face Sri Lanka in their series opener on June 1 in Sophia Gardens, Cardiff.
