New Zealand cricket team, who has just landed in Australia to defend the Chappell-Hadlee trophy will have an uphill task against the Australian team when they kick off the ODI series from December 4. They will miss the experience of Ross Taylor who has just had an eye operation and will need time to recover from it. There is no Brendon McCullum who retired from international cricket earlier this year, handing the reigns to Kane Williamson. Though Martin Guptill, the highest run scorer of last year’s Chappell-Hadlee trophy is in the party, but his tottering form will scare New Zeland team all throughout the three ODIs.
The combination of fragile players makes this squad vulnerable in the wake hostile hosts Australia. The fact is pretty much known by New Zealand coach Mike Hesson, who earlier admitted that loss against India has blown away the confidence of New Zealand, “We are missing some key players, we’ve lost over 100s of one-day international games since the World Cup. To replace those is a challenge. But we’ve also got some exciting players that you guys won’t know a lot about. Hopefully, you will in a week or 10 days. That’s important for us to give them this sort of exposure, and find out which ones we want to keep backing and supporting,
“With Adam Milne missing, Lockie gives us that point of difference in our attack,” Hesson said. “He hasn’t played a huge amount up until that last two seasons. He’s got over a lot of injuries. He’s got to an age where those major issues tend to dissipate a bit, once you get to 24, 25. He’s a strong bowler, he’s certainly quick. I’d be very surprised if he doesn’t play at some point in this series.
“He’s like Adam Milne, they’ve both bowled over 150 at times … Lockie is at the early stage of his career, but we know that he’s capable of bowling at the pace at times. It’s difficult, your first series there’s obviously going to be some nerves. But he’s a confident character. When he gets his opportunity, I’m sure he’ll give us a point of difference in our attack, which is important,” Hesson said in Adelaide, three days prior to the start of the series.
Recently, Australia was defeated by visiting South Africa in three-match Test series by a margin of 1-2. Earlier, South Africa defeated Australia in their own backyard and clean swept Aussies in five-ODI series, still, New Zealand is in no mood to take Australia lightly as coach Mike Hesson is well versed with Australian team and knows the difference between two formats of the game, “Their one-day side is a heck of a lot more settled than their Test side. Their one-day side has been incredibly consistent, bar the South African series they’ve been very good for a number of years. Currently ranked No.1 in the world, so I don’t think the unsettled nature of the Test side will lead the one-day side.
“We want to hang on to the Chappell-Hadlee. We’ve won it the last couple of times and it’s really important for us. Australia are our big brothers and to win a bilateral series against them is important to us. If the byproduct of that is an increase in rankings then great. But we tend to look at the rankings at the back end of a season and see how you’ve gone, rather than it be a motivation for us,” Hesson concluded.