While the Eden Park Stadium in Auckland, gave a merry time to batsmen, it sure gave a rough patch to bowlers in the two T20I matches between India and New Zealand.
Being a small venue, batsmen were seen smashing boundaries and maximums at will.
While Team India batsmen used the venue to their advantage in both the matches, the bowling unit sure faced issues in the first and made corrections in the second.
Indian skipper Virat Kohli kept his faith in the same side for the two matches. In his post-match comments, he hinted that India could go in with an unchanged side even for the third match of the series.
“When you have a complete performance like that, it helps. This same side has won us two games. I know New Zealand are going to bounce back hard. We need to bring our A game again and we are up for the challenge. I think the dimensions of Hamilton are better than Auckland, it’s an even field for the bowlers,” Virat Kohli said after the match.
While Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja became the backbone of Kohli, Mohammed Shami made sure to bring in a change in the second clash. Shivam Dube too produced good bowling as he as well took wickets. Shardul Thakur was one bowler who leaked runs upfront.
However, talking about the bowling unit, Kohli said, “I think the lines and lengths we bowled today, sticking to one side of the wicket and being sure of what we wanted to bowl. It was a very good feature for us as a team. That helped us restrict a strong side like New Zealand to such a low total. I think the pitch was good enough for a score of 160 in the first innings”.
While the Men in Blue are going into the 3rd ODI confident with a 2-0 lead as a backup, there is Navdeep Saini waiting in the wings. The main question raises is that will the pacer be replaced by Shardul Thakur.
