One of the biggest extravaganzas in the world of sports, the ICC World T20 is being played in India. The Indian cricket team spearhead by skipper MS Dhoni, will kick of its campaign in the ongoing World T20 against the Kiwis on Tuesday.
ICC World T20: India target first win over New Zealand
Needless to mention, New Zealand which is one of the best sides in the international cricket would be a tough nut to crack for the Indian side, also because, whenever we recall to our minds the group stage fixture between India and New Zealand which was played on 16th September at the Johannesburg, in South Africa, where New Zealand registered a close 10 runs win after posting a mammoth total of 191 runs for the men in blue.
Though, it was the only game in the entire tournament which India lost, but to everyone’s surprise the Indian team ended up winning the tournament. Moreover, it was the first time when MS Dhoni was leading a very young team which had no likes of Sachin, Saurav, Dravid.
In fact, questions were been raised over the capability of the players to perform in the shortest format of the game in the absence of the experienced players. But the boys proved everyone wrong.
However, both India and New Zealand failed to raise to the occasion and couldn’t create that magic in the later editions of the tournament and thus faltering and crashed out in the group stage in the consecutive T20 World Cup played in England and Sri Lanka in 2010 and 2012 respectively.
The Indian team ended its losing streak and two years later bounced back and reached the finals of tournament which was played in Bangladesh, in 2014, but ended on the losing side to its counter-part Sri Lanka by 6 wickets.
So finally, the 8 years of long wait, is over! And India is ready to face-off a tough challenge against a tough side, and its none other than New Zealand. Currently, both the teams have an influx of some of the best players in the world of cricket and are riding on a high.
Indian skipper Dhoni can boast about some of the best young cricketers like Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Manish Pandey who have the capability to turn around the game for the team which we saw in Australia and in the recently ended Asia Cup. Dhoni will try his best not to leave any stone unturned for this important match.
While, the Kiwis will be lead by the destructive batsmen Brendon McCullum one of the most experienced player in the current squad, and has been anchoring the role of a ruthless batsmen and can tear apart any bowling attack with his ferocious batting skills. Kane Williamson, Martin Guptil who add fuel to the fire into the batting attack. The trio of Trent Boult, Tim Southee will lead the bowling attack have the ability to demolish any top class bating lineup which we saw in the ICC world cup 2015.
It would be an interesting fixture and both Dhoni and McCullum would like to initiate their campaign on a winning note. For sure, Dhoni would desperately looking to improve his record against the Kiwis.
Tags: ICC World T20, India, Nagpur, New Zealand, T20 World Cup, Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, World Cup T20
