2017 ICC Champions Trophy: Not Sure If New Zealand Has A Settled Line-Up – Shane Bond

Nov 2, 2023 at 3:50 PM

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2017 ICC Champions Trophy: Not Sure If New Zealand Has A Settled Line-Up – Shane Bond

New Zealand’s fast bowling great Shane Bond hopes New Zealand get off to a winning start; if the side wishes to achieve success in the tournament.

Writing in a column for the ICC, Bond mentioned the Importance of winning tournament openers in multi-nation competitions in order to prepare for the bigger challenges that may come in the way in latter stages.

“That first game is massive to gain momentum through the tournament, and I believe the best time to tip a team over is in the first game, especially when it’s a team that you have had recent success against.”

“Given that England looms ahead, this opening game against Australia becomes massive for New Zealand. Without any disrespect to Bangladesh, New Zealand will bank on beating Bangladesh, and on Australia and England doing the same. Therefore, it will have to win one of the first two games, either against Australia or England, to keep itself in the hunt for a semi-final spot.”

New Zealand is pitted against Australia, England and Bangladesh in the Group A and will kick start the tournament in the most fashionable way, playing against rivals Australia. The upcoming game gives fans from both the countries yet another opportunity to relish the competition between the big brother Australia and the underdogs.

Bond shared the experience of playing against the resilient Aussies.

“There’s a natural sporting rivalry, whether it be cricket or rugby. Australia has been very, very good in the whole range of sports, and I can state from personal experience that in cricket, they are bloody hard to beat!”

Australia has yet again arrived with their best possible stars and will test New Zealand to the core. With a fiery pace battery and an explosive batting line-up, Australia already is considered as one of the potential winners of the tournament.

Bond recognises the uniqueness of Australia and suggests that New Zealand will have to keep things tight in both the batting and bowling departments if they wish to challenge the might of their opposition.

“When I look at this current Australia side with their batting firepower and their pace-bowling resources, it is difficult not to see them as one of the favourites. One of the things that make them so hard to beat, obviously, is just the sheer talent in their ranks. Even when I played against them, they had match-winners from No.1 to No.11, and because they had such strong players, they also had the psychological edge.”

“You want to keep the game tight, and you want to ride the punches because you know what you will get with Australia – aggressive batting right from the very top, and relentless fast bowling.”

“Australia is tough and uncompromising. They come at you hard, and if they sense a weakness or an opening, they will roll you over. The trick is to try and hang with it for as long as you possibly can because against Australia, it is very rare that you win comfortably.”

Bond also felts that while Australia has a balanced squad, New Zealand may struggle to pick their best line-up.

His words make sense as Williamson will find it tough to decide which spinners to play between left armer Mitchell Santner and off-spinner Jeetan Patel. Also, there will some time spent discussing the better choice between the two wicket-keepers in the side – Luke Ronchi and Tom Latham.

“To me, the one worrying thing is that while Australia has a pretty settled team, I don’t get the sense that New Zealand knows what its best line-up is.”

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