After dispatching Australia in their own backyard, India will be looking to do the same to their Trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand as the two sides get ready to meet in a five-match ODI series beginning on Wednesday at Napier.
The hosts are brimming with confidence themselves after a recent 3-0 clean sweep over Sri Lanka and have key batsmen like Ross Taylor and skipper Kane Williamson in excellent form.
With New Zealand’s batting order looking rock solid, India skipper Virat Kohli has asked his team to be prepared to chase 300 plus targets in the series.
“You see New Zealand have the ability to make the game high-scoring, so the key is to not panic when you see 300 posted regularly. You just have to back yourself as a batting group to get those runs or set a big target when you’re batting first,” Kohli said on the eve of the first ODI.
The visitors will have recent history against them in New Zealand with their last five ODI series in the country ending in four defeats and one tie. The last time India played an ODI series in the country, they were handed a 0-4 thrashing in a five-match series.
Kohli, was a part of the losing squad led by MS Dhoni, believes India have learned their lessons from that defeat.
Kohli is hopeful India have learned from their 2013-14 loss.
“We’ve seen a lot of things that happened in the last series in New Zealand, the patterns and the areas the guys were looking to get us out,” the India star stated.
“We were probably not an experienced side back then in terms of batting together. If you see the last three years or so we have evolved as a batting group, we are more aware of our abilities,” he added.
It was a day to savour for the India skipper who swept the big three prizes at the ICC Awards as he became the first man in history to win the trifecta of the Cricketer of the Year, Men’s ODI Player of the Year and the Men’s Test Player of the Year in the same calendar year.
Kohli came in for some praise from his New Zealand counterpart Kane Williamson who was wary of focussing on just the India skipper in the series.
“Obviously a world class player, Virat, and he’s always a challenge to come up against and is someone who is most admired in terms of how he goes about his cricket and he’s formidable in his run scoring. Definitely a player of note,” said Williamson.
“There’s so many quality players in that side so although he is world class, you don’t want to get too consumed around one individual because there’s a number of match winners in their side. You focus on the opposition as a whole,” he continued.
New Zealand beat India by 24 runs the last time both sides met in an ODI at Napier in January, 2014.
