Trent Boult and other key bowlers not available for Australia series

• Trent Boult declined the central contract for the ILT20 league in UAE.
• New Zealand hoping to give some of its peripheral players a chance in absence of veterans.
• New Zealand is hoping to take as many learnings as possible from their series win over Sri Lanka.

Trent Boult, who declined his New Zealand central contract, is currently playing for MI Emirates in the ILT20 in the UAE. Prior to the home Test series against England in February, Tim Southee was covered in cotton wool. The last time New Zealand faced a top-ranked team in an ODI without both Boult and Southee was in Hamilton in 2016 when they faced Australia.

The third ODI in Karachi saw Ish Sodhi suffer an ankle injury, severely weakening New Zealand’s attack. New Zealand is aiming to give some of its peripheral players a run and see if they may fit into their ODI World Cup plans in the absence of several veterans, including regular white-ball captain Kane Williamson, who has also been rested for this India tour.

“Anytime that Tim, Trent and Kane aren’t in the side or aren’t with us, it obviously leaves a massive hole for us,” New Zealand captain Tom Latham said ahead of the first ODI in Hyderabad.

“On the other hand, it presents opportunities for the other guys that have been around the squad for a while. I think we’re lucky that pretty much everyone has played international cricket in this side, which is a bonus and over Covid, it presented opportunities to other guys. When guys like that have a break, it’s the other guys’ turn to step up and have an opportunity and we’re lucky enough to have someone like Lockie Ferguson who has played a lot of cricket here in India and I’m sure the guys will be leaning on his experiences as best as possible.”

Ferguson, who has played in the IPL for the Gujarat Titans, the defending champions, and Kolkata Knight Riders, was in charge of the bowlers’ meeting on Tuesday.

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He began bowling for New Zealand’s recent series, a 2-1 victory over Pakistan and is set to do so once more with the support of two each of Doug Bracewell, Henry Shipley, and Jacob Duffy. Before New Zealand returns for the ODI World Cup later this year, they and the rest of the group can use this series to assess the Indian playing conditions.

“This is our last opportunity to play in these conditions before the World Cup in October and November, which you know, isn’t too far away,” Latham said.

“So, I guess for us it’s [about] taking as many learnings as we can from these conditions and I said we’re lucky enough that most of the guys have played in these Indian conditions before. I don’t think we’ve played a one-dayer at any of the venues we have been playing at, so for us, it’s getting used to the conditions and familiarising ourselves with different surfaces that we may be faced with during the World Cup.”

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Latham also took heart from New Zealand’s victory in the ODI in Karachi, where they overcame a 1-0 deficit to win the three-match series. The slow, sticky surfaces in Pakistan weren’t the best for batting, but those in India might be much better. similar to how it happened in the most recent series against Sri Lanka, where the home team posted two scores of 370 or more in three games.

“The cricket we played in Pakistan was really good,” Latham said. “It was somewhere we have never toured before for a long time and to come up with a series win where it is difficult to play was really nice. I guess for us coming here, it’s about trying to adapt to conditions the best we can. The surfaces here will potentially be better than what we had in Pakistan; so just trying to stick to our plans as best as we can and I’m sure it’ll be a competitive series. Every time we play India, it’s always a competitive series and we’re looking forward to what’s coming up.”

Despite having a rather weak bowling attack, New Zealand’s batting lineup features several superb spinners. Latham and Devon Conway kept a close eye on mystery spinner Abrar Ahmed’s hand throughout the Test series in Pakistan, both from the striker’s end and the non-end. striker’s Now, Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav will be the opponents for New Zealand, albeit it is unlikely that they would bowl together. Offspin from Washington Sundar is more likely to be matched against New Zealand’s lineup, which is loaded on left-handers.

“As I said before, we’re lucky enough we’ve played these guys and we’ve played India a lot – whether it would be here or back home in recent years,” Latham said.

“So, as I said we plan for these guys with our scouting as best as possible and talking to the guys that have played here before – whether it’s in the IPL or different series in terms of trying to read their different deliveries. We will certainly be doing our best to try and negate them [Chahal and Kuldeep]. Obviously spin is quite a big thing over here in India, and we’re really excited about the three games coming up in the one-day series.”

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