India vs New Zealand 2017: Are Kiwis ready to play Blue Shirts?

It’s less than a month for India vs New Zealand 2017 series and the outcoming as for now tells that it would be an easy hunt of the Kiwis by the Indian hunters at their soil. This ain’t a hasty conclusion as the Blue Shirts have been currently doing the same against New Zealand’s neighbor, Australia.

India vs New Zealand 2017

An insight into the situation so far tells that it won’t be wrong to say that Kiwis are not ready to play India in these circumstances.

New Zealand’s Squad for India Tour

In an unprecedented move New Zealand cricket announced 9- confirm men for the Indian tour with vowing to fill the remaining six positions with the top players from New Zealand A’s ongoing series against the India A.

The Kiwis coach obviously had to defend the move and while doing so he told that the announced nine members make up the core of his team, and the other squad will be consisting of the top performers of NZ A squad. But putting his defense on a side, New Zealand team seems not well prepared to get a go against the mighty Blue Shirts. And the sole reason behind is the absence of key players, which were very much part of the team plan until ICC Champions Trophy 2017.

It won’t be wrong to say that Kiwis suffered a mighty blow with the Luke Ronchi’s retirement from the international cricket. And the thing which even hits harder than the aforementioned is Mitchell McClenaghan’s priority to play T20 leagues around the world with staying out of the national contract.

• Luke Ronchi: Announced retirement from the International Cricket.
• Mitchell McClenaghan: Stayed out of the national contract so he could play T20 leagues.
• Corey Anderson: Rehabilitation after Back Operation.
• Neil Broom: Dropped over Champions Trophy 2017 fiasco
• Jimmy Neesham: Dropped over Champions Trophy 2017 Fiasco.

New Zealand’s 9-man Squad

Martin Guptill, Tom Latham (wk), Kane Williamson (c), Ross Taylor, Colin de Grandhomme, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Adam Milne, Trent Boult.

As said by the New Zealand coach these 9-men comprise the core of the team; all the players announced seem good both on-and-off the paper. But the question here is that is this side actually ready to get on collide with the number-1 ODI team??

New Zealand’s Plight & Indian Spinners Dominance

The 9-men squad has some good batters but with even getting players from the New Zealand A it would be an arduous journey for the New Zealand batting as they haven’t got their combinations right and actually the batting department would lack the much-needed versatility which would be the pivotal role in ODIs in India.

In India, a deep-batting line up with openers, middle order, finishers, power hitters, and all rounder’s very much active is the key figure. Other than that, well-equipped spinners actually turn out to be the game changers in India and as far now New Zealand doesn’t either have this zone strong enough to deal with Blue Shirts.

New Zealand A vs India A

New Zealand going as per their reputation has badly fallen against the spin with losing their 1st unofficial Test match in India by an innings and 31 runs. The Indian spinners to hunt the Kiwis were Karan Sharma and Shahbaz Nadeem, out of which the former has played only 1-Test and the latter is still eyeing his debut.

Black Caps batting line-up collapsed in both the innings as they were only able to make 147 and 142 in the 1st and 2nd innings respectively.

Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav vs Australia

It won’t be easy for the Kiwis to deal with these young promising spinners, who gave Aussies sleepless nights in the ongoing series. The Aussie batting lineup consisting of Warner, Smith, Maxwell, and Head failed to knock down the magical spells by the duo of Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav.

Final Take on India vs New Zealand 2017

New Zealand had to get their plans and combinations right if they want to stand against the Indians on their soil. In short, they would have to go out-of-the-box in order to beat Blue Shirts.