T20 World Cup, India vs New Zealand: In virtual eliminator, Virat Kohli and Co face their nemesis

The last time India defeated New Zealand in an ICC men’s multi-team event, the current Board of Control for Cricket in India president was the captain and the reported next head coach was batting at No 5 and also the wicketkeeper.

Yes, it was in March 2003 when the Sourav Ganguly-led side defeated New Zealand in Centurion. And since then, Indian men have not won a match against Black Caps at the biggest of stages. Twice in T20 World Cups, once in an ODI World Cup and thrice in the World Test Championship including the final... the list of heartbreaks for the men in blue (or white) has been long. Even before 2003, there was the ICC Knockout Trophy heartbreak in 2000.

And it is with this background that Virat Kohli’s men take on Kane Williamson and Co on Sunday in Dubai in a match that has huge significance for their respective futures at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021.

It probably won’t be an exaggeration to say this will be a defining test for Kohli in his T20I captaincy career. In IPL terms, this match is an eliminator. Winning it doesn’t guarantee either team a passage through to semifinals as both teams are yet to face Afghanistan. But a defeat will likely mean that their tournament is all but over.

With Pakistan already on six points having played all their tough games (India, New Zealand and Afghanistan) in the first week of Super 12s, they are expected to defeat Namibia and Scotland en route their expected top place finish in Group 2. This leaves both India and New Zealand in a perilous position as whoever wins has a chance to finish on maximum eight points. Afghanistan showed against Pakistan they won’t be pushovers in the UAE conditions and will be expected to defeat Namibia in earlier match on Sunday to move to four points and face India and New Zealand in their remaining matches.

With the dew playing a major role in the evenings, toss is indeed playing a very crucial role in the outcome of night matches. Kohli was defiant about in the pre-match press conference, saying what you would expect him to about being ready for any challenge but winning the coin flip would certainly help. For starters, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul won’t have to face Trent Boult’s swingers first up when some moisture would be on offer. The Kiwi pacer has said that he hopes to mirror Shaheen Shah Afridi’s performance and India’s batting order have now come unstuck twice in their last two men’s World Cup outings (Manchester and Dubai) against high quality pace. It makes for another enticing battle.

Suryakumar Yadav would like to put up a better performance and Rishabh Pant would certainly like to finish off in style after the kind of start he got against Pakistan.

It’s been a week since the Indian team endured a rather dismal evening against Pakistan. It is often said that teams like to get back into action immediately after a big defeat but the Indian team looked drained at times in the match against Pakistan and the break could have come in handy. And now they’d hope for a course correction against the Kiwis, and it will depend largely on getting the roles assigned for the players right.

It won’t be easy against a quality New Zealand side, that will come hard at India having also lost Pakistan in their opening game. Tim Southee and Trent Boult especially have been a nemesis for the Indians in big games. However, their soft underbelly is batting where Kane Williamson is dealing with fitness issues and the rest of unit doesn’t boast of out and out match-winners.

Muttiah Muralidaran column: India too reliant on Jasprit Bumrah, need a more balanced bowling attack

And herein lies India’s chance. But for that, their bowlers need to implement the game plans perfectly, something they couldn’t against Pakistan. Even more important will be execution from two players on whom the team management has heavily invested – Hardik Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar – who have been causing concerns not just with their form but the way the team balance works. Pandya not bowling and Bhuvneshwar not being at his best has exposed India’s batting and bowling depth. But all the indications are that the team management are going to persist with the same combination.

India have shown in recent times that they perform at their best when backed into a corner. For starters, Kohli and Co simply cannot afford another poor 30 minutes if they wish to stay longer in the UAE.

Quotes corner

There’s been a lot of talk about you and Rohit Sharma, IPL, and then of course the left-arm swing coming in to him. Now that there’s been so much talk about that and also KL Rahul doing so well. What is the plan B for Trent Boult if not batting swing arm?

Trent Boult: I’m not too sure what the plan is with what overs certain bowlers are bowling. But I thought the way Shaheen bowled the other night from a left-armer, watching on I thought it was amazing. But there’s quality batsmen in that India lineup.

Early wickets are definitely the focus for us as a bowling group. But we just need to be nice and clear and nice and accurate on where we’re trying to put the ball. But hopefully, from my point of view, it swings around a little bit and I can mirror what Shaheen did the other night.

— (via ICC)

Boult said he’s looking to mirror what Shaheen did against you guys the last game. So knowing that he’s able to get the ball to swing early on, and as a batting unit how do you see it, because obviously in the powerplay you are looking to score some runs. So how does the balance part come in?

Virat Kohli: Yeah, I mean, we obviously will come up against some quality bowlers all around the world in this competition, and hence the intensity and the level at which this competition operates is very, very different.

So we know that. We played against these individuals for a long period of time. It’s not something out of the ordinary that’s going to come our way. And it all depends on how we take the field mentally and how we counter that.

If Trent says he wants to replicate what he did, what Shaheen did against us, obviously he’s motivated to do so and we have to be motivated to counter that and try to put pressure on him and the other bowlers as well. That’s how basically the game goes anyway.

We played against all these bowlers for a long period of time. And we understand exactly what we need to do. All that matters now is, when we step onto the field, what kind of mental frame we’re in. I feel absolutely confident hitting that ball fairly and not thinking about any other scenarios, I think that’s key to batting in high-pressure situations and it’s something that we’re looking forward to execute as a team.

— Virat Kohli (via ICC)

Squads (from):

India: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy, Shardul Thakur, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishan Kishan, Rahul Chahar

New Zealand: Kane Williamson (c), Martin Guptill, Daryl Mitchell, Devon Conway, Tim Seifert (wk), James Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Trent Boult, Tim Southee, Mark Chapman, Adam Milne, Kyle Jamieson, Todd Astle.

With PTI, ICC and ESPNCricinfo Statsguru inputs.

Match starts: 7:30 PM IST and will be broadcast on Star Sports & Disney+Hotstar.