The history for New Zealand in any ICC tournament is quite rich, especially in the eight to ten years. They lost the semifinal of the last Men’s T20 World Cup in 2022 against Pakistan in Sydney, by seven wickets. The Blackcaps were the runners-up in the 2021 edition, accepting defeat to Australia.
New Zealand however will be shouldering on their ‘experience’ of the players from the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL), the recent tour to Pakistan and the last Caribbean Premier League (CPL) for the preparation of the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024.
‘Our group is experienced and they can learn from past’- New Zealand head coach Gary Stead
The team decided not to have any warm-up games, due to the logistic issues. Few players will be involved in the finals of the IPL 2024, while their entire squad will reach to the West Indies in three batches, from May 23 to June 1. New Zealand decided to have an extra training session before their opening fixture against Afghanistan.
Also Read: ‘It Has been 17 Years…’- Rohit Sharma Informs About His Future Planning
‘West Indies is a tough place to get to for a start, so it’s not easy to get everyone to Trinidad and Tobago at the same time.’ Gary Head expressed. ‘For us, we don’t have warm-up games. There’s a number of guys who have been in the IPL for the last two months, and we’ve also recently come off the tour to Pakistan.’
Nine players of the 15-member squad have featured in the IPL, as Devon Conway who was ruled out of the tournament with injury has been training with the Chennai Super Kings franchise.
‘There is a lot of experience in the group who have played in the CPL before, so we’ll be leaning on those guys and making sure the trainings we get prior to the first game puts us in a position of where we want to be.’ Stead reflected on their preparation.
However, the concern for New Zealand is most of their key members of the squad haven’t played a lot of game for the respective teams in the IPL. Lockie Ferguson played in five games, while Matt Henry was part of three games. Both Mitchell Santner and Kane Williamson featured in a couple of games each for their individual teams.
Daryl Mitchell has made 12 appearances for the Super Kings, nailing 314 runs at a very good strike rate of 144.70, while Trent Boult has picked up 12 wickets at an economy of 8.42 for the Rajasthan Royals (RR).
‘He’s tracking nicely’- Stead provides fitness update
New Zealand have been under more pressure with the fitness issue of their preferred opening pair of Devon Conway and Finn Allen. However, the head coach informed that the latter has been facing some pain, while Conway will be assessed after his return from India.
‘He is tracking nicely.’ Stead told. ‘He’s been wicketkeeping and batting in the nets on a regular basis.’
Another veteran bowler Tim Southee too hasn’t been part of any game since the end of the last home summer but Stead believes it won’t affect them much.
‘We’ve only got two players who haven’t been to a T20 World Cup that are in this squad.’ He remarked. ‘That shows our group is experienced and they can lean back on those past experiences.’
New Zealand find themselves in a tough group, consisted of the co-hosts West Indies, who are well familiar with the conditions, while Afghanistan will give so much challenges thanks to their world-class spinners on those surfaces.
“Certainly, looking forward to the challenge ahead and also the unknown of some of these new teams as well, the difference they might bring that we have to be really complete with our planning,” Gary Stead concluded.
New Zealand will begin their T20 World Cup 2024 campaign against Afghanistan on June 08 at the Providence Stadium in Guyana.