After registering a thrilling win over Australia in the warm-up match on Monday, India will be looking to deliver another good performance as they lock horns with New Zealand in their second warm-up match ahead of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Brisbane on Wednesday.
Preview
India hit the right chords mostly in their battle against Australia. Two of their batters played big knocks, which helped them to post a competitive total of 186/7 on an excellent batting track. Although their bowlers proved to be expensive initially, they pulled things back in the middle and death overs to register a six-run win. Harshal Patel and Mohammed Shami were brilliant in the death and these are encouraging signs for India considering their recent death bowling woes.
New Zealand, on the other hand, didn’t have a memorable start to their campaign. The Kiwis were completely outclassed in their match against South Africa as they got bowled out for just 98. The Proteas pressed on their weakness again as their spinners Tabraiz Shamsi and Keshav Maharaj claimed five wickets between them. The bowlers couldn’t put on a fight either as South Africa chased the target down with 52 deliveries and nine wickets to spare. Kane Williamson and his men will need to improve in both departments if they want to stand a chance of going into the knockout stages of the tournament.
Predicted Playing XIs
India
Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Harshal Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami
New Zealand
Devon Conway, Finn Allen (wk), Kane Williamson (c), Glenn Phillips, James Neesham, Daryl Mitchell, Mitchell Santner, Trent Boult, Ish Sodhi, Lockie Ferguson, Tim Southee
Key Players
Suryakumar Yadav: The middle-order batter has been in excellent form this year. He scored a fifty in the warm-up match against Australia and has amassed a total of 801 T20 international runs this year, at an outstanding average and strike-rate of 40.05 and 184.56 respectively.
Kane Williamson: The New Zealand skipper will need to do well if they want to stand a chance of winning this match. Williamson has a pretty good T20 international record against India, with 358 runs at an average of 32.54 and strike-rate of 132.59.
Prediction
India have been in excellent form of late and are also coming into this match on the back of a confidence-boosting win against a strong team like Australia. They are the favourites to win this contest once again.
