- Exploit Australia’s brittle middle order:
Going into this tournament, Australia doesn’t have the strongest of middle orders. Travis Head did impress in the warm-up game against Sri Lanka with a calm knock, but he remains untested in an ICC event. Glenn Maxwell too endures an indifferent form as he wasn’t at his best in the IPL and struggled for runs later on. Chris Lynn is another prospect who is under the spotlight but like Head, he doesn’t’ have the experience of playing a lot of ODI cricket. To gain a major strategic hold of the game, the New Zealand bowlers need to win the middle overs battle. That can happen only if Australia’s relatively inexperienced middle order is tested completely by some attacking bowling from the Blackcaps.