CWC 2019 - The Real Contenders #1: New Zealand
For the past two world cups, I have reviewed the squads of the top 6 or 8 teams and predicted how they will fare in a series of the same name. I will continue this World Cup tradition and start by looking at Team New Zealand. These posts are not in order and I start with New Zealand only because they are the only team so far that has announced their squad.
Squad: Kane Williamson (C), Martin Guptill, Henry Nicholls, Ross Taylor, Tom Latham (WK) , Colin Munro, Tom Blundell (WK), Jimmy Neesham, Colin de Grandhomme, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult
Player(s) to watch: Ross Taylor, Trent Boult
Surprise selections: Tom Blundell
Key Areas:
Batting
Ross Taylor has been incredible for New Zealand in recent times with an average of 60+ since 2017. Taylor will be playing his 4th world cup and with the retirement of Brendon McCullum, he will certainly play a key role in New Zealand’s success. Since the beginning of 2018, New Zealand have chased down a target of 280+ two out of three times and Taylor scored a hundred on both occasions. Other teams will be foolish to not have a plan for Taylor considering how much Kiwis depend on him.
To support him, Kiwi batting line-up boasts of Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson as well as Tom Latham. Guptill was 2015 World Cup’s highest run scorer, but his recent form was worrisome until he scored 2 hundreds against Bangladesh. Skipper Kane Williamson has been in decent form, although the he last scored an ODI century just over 1 year ago. He generally does a good job of holding the innings together, but with small grounds and flat pitches expected in England - New Zealand will need the likes of Guptill, Tom Latham and Jimmy Neesham to fire and set or chase bigger targets.
Bowling
Trent Boult has been the leader of the Kiwi attack for a while and was the highest wicket taker (jointly with Mitchell Starc) in the previous World Cup. With limited experience of playing in England, Boult will look to use the long round-robin format to get going and if he doesn’t do well, I would be surprised to New Zealand go very far. Tim Southee who had 15 wickets in the 2015 edition is also in the squad but has sometimes been off-color in the recent past. Southee may sometimes find himself on the bench with Lockie Ferguson sharing the new ball with Boult. Matt Henry was unlucky to have missed out last World Cup but will be keen to prove himself. While Mitchell Santner doesn’t concede too many runs, Ish Sodhi has been a bigger wicket taker and will need to deliver in the middle overs.
Recent Form & Fixtures
With 15 wins in 24 matches since the beginning of 2018, New Zealand are a balanced side and have whitewashed Pakistan, Sri Lanka as well as Bangladesh at home. They haven’t played in England recently and the last time they visited, they lost to Bangladesh in the Champions Trophy of 2017. However, conditions in England are likely to similar to that in New Zealand and therefore, the players should be able to adapt. Additionally, the Kiwis will face Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan in their first three matches, so that should provide them some leeway to get ready for the tougher opponents like England and India.
Prediction: The format of this World Cup is a round-robin, similar to that of 1992. Therefore, each will play the other 9 teams and the top 4 will enter the Semi-Final stage. In spite of the recent series defeat against India, New Zealand are a solid ODI team and they should make it to the Semi-Finals but will likely not be able to reach the Finals.