ICC World Test Championship - India vs New Zealand - Analysis and Teams Review - Part 2

Hello Cricket Lovers,


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I continue this second part of my earlier blog reviewing the India and New Zealand teams who will be playing in the final of the ICC World Test Championship starting from tomorrow at Southampton.

We saw about Indian team analysis, their chances and possible team composition.
Let's see the same details about New Zealand team

As we discussed, New Zealand has been playing in England since few days and they did win the test series against hosts England rather easily and already got accustomed to English weather and pitch conditions and have better chance at winning the WTC.

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New Zealand:


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New Zealand though got lesser number of matches as against India(11 as against 17 by India), they won 2 match series against India, West Indies, Pakistan and drew 2 match series against Sri Lanka and lost 3 match series against Australia 0-3 to get 7 wins from 11 games they played.

New Zealand is being captained by cool captain, Kane Williamson and have many match winners in the team and it's a mixture of experienced players such as Ross Taylor, BJ Watling, Tim Southee and Trent Boult and also the young guys like Tom Latham, Devon Conway, Henry Nicholls, Ajaz Patel, Kyle Jamieson and Matt Henry and they are all match winners as they showed in the Second test against hosts England in the recently concluded match.

Full squad for New Zealand is:

Tom Latham,
Devon Conway,
Kane Williamson,
Ross Taylor,
Henry Nicholls,
BJ Watling,
Colin de Grandhomme,
Tim Southee,
Ajaz Patel,
Neil Wagner,
Trent Boult,
Matt Henry,
Kyle Jamieson,
Tom Blundell,
Will Young,
Mitchell Santner and
Daryl Mitchell.

New Zealand has already trimmed that down to 15 members squad to leave out Mitchell Santner and Daryl Mitchell.

So, what will be New Zealand team composition? Will they play both Colin De Grandhomme and Ajaz Patel or will there be 4 specialist fast bowlers to include Matt Henry instead of Ajaz Patel? Let's see.

While India already announced their playing XI on the eve of the test today, New Zealand are yet to trim the team to XI from Fifteen as I write this.

Based on the Fifteen, let's try to predict the Playing XI.

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Team New Zealand Openers:

Tom Latham and Tom Blundell have been the pair which has played in most of those 11 matches.

But, off late, they did use Devon Conway as an opener in recently concluded test series against England and him scoring a 200 on debut and he might continue to open for them along with Tom Latham.

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Team New Zealand Middle Order Batsmen:

New Zealand boasts strong middle order lineup like India.

Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Henry Nicholls are the automatic choices to be the middle order with allrounder Colin De Grandhomme most probably continue to fill the other slot.

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Team New Zealand Wicket Keeper:

Tom Blundell did play the last test against England as a Wicket Keeper Batsman and accounted for 8 catches behind the wicket, but I think that was to give some rest to injured BJ Watling and New Zealand most probably will bring back BJ Watling for the WTC Final.

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Team New Zealand Bowling Composition:

This will be something like a selection headache for New Zealand captain and coach since all the fast bowlers who got an opportunity have played well including the recent man of the match Matt Henry.

But, New Zealand may stick to the combination of Tim Southee, Neil Wagner and Trent Boult as their fast bowling trio.

The final slot will be a toss up between Ajaz Patel as lone specialist spinner or if they feel Kane Williamson and others can contribute some spin overs, they may include another fast bowler among Matt Henry and Kyle Jamieson.

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As I said earlier, the pitch conditions which suites fast bowlers and with their recent England tour, New Zealand starts as the favorites to win this WTC final.

But, India will not be throwing it just like that having fought so well in India and fast pitches in Australia and they will love to go as a team without match practice and show why they were superior and finished as number 1 team in WTC league phase.

Let's hope the weather gods will show mercy for this Final and we get a full 5 day match without much disturbance although the forecast conditions are expected during match time.

Happy to have reviewed both the teams and their chances and as an Indian team fan, I will continue to cheer for them no matter what the result will be.

Time for me to finish this blog and continue the curation work :)

Wishing you all wonderful day :)

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6 comments
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Great analysis you got there,i am tipping india as my favourite..


Posted via proofofbrain.io

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Thanks buddy, I am sure you haven't read it fully as you commented within a minute of posting this blog.

Anyways, thanks for having India as your favorite just like me :)

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very informative, good job

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Thanks buddy, unfortunately, the First day's play has been washed out!!!!

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