Virat Kohli praises New Zealand’s consistency ahead of World Cup clash

In anticipation of the eagerly awaited clash, Kohli discussed the elements driving New Zealand's World Cup dominance. In anticipation of the eagerly awaited clash, Kohli discussed the elements driving New Zealand's World Cup dominance.

New Delhi: India’s stalwart batter Virat Kohli hailed New Zealand’s structure as well as their consistency and called it a major factor that contributes to their success ahead of their upcoming clash in the ongoing World Cup.

The Kiwis have enjoyed a perfect record in the ongoing World Cup after facing the likes of England, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and the Netherlands. On the other hand, the Men in Blue have also recorded a perfect start, but on Sunday one team’s unbeaten streak will come to an end.

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Both teams have encountered each other 8 times in the ODI World Cup and the Blackcaps have emerged victorious five times. Their recent performances in the mega tournament further boost their confidence as they made the finals of the 2015 and 2019 World Cup and also defeated India in the World Test Championship final in 2021.

Ahead of the highly anticipated clash, Kohli talked about the factors that contribute to the dominance New Zealand has enjoyed in the World Cup.

“They are a very professional side and a very structured side, they have a very structured way of playing their cricket. But within that structure, they have been very consistent and that has been the reason for their success. Credit to the side for the way that they are playing. Any team that plays against them has to find a way to break their rhythm and playing to the best of their abilities which will eventually decide whether you can cope up with their consistency or not because they are not a team that makes many mistakes. That’s been their strength and at the international level if you don’t make many mistakes then you have a good chance of winning the game more often,” Kohli told Star Sports.

Indian skipper Rohit Sharma hailed New Zealand’s tactical prowess which makes them a tough team to compete with and said, “I think when I talk about tactical New Zealand comes to my mind. I feel they are tactically very strong they bat according to the plans that have been given to them. When you play against them you know some sort of planning has been done against each individual. They have beaten us in the ICC tournaments regularly so for us it is important that we try to understand the situation first what we need to do as individuals and try to play the game.”

Both teams will square off at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, in Dharamshala.
India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav.

New Zealand squad: Kane Williamson (c), Trent Boult, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell, Jimmy Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Mitch Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Will Young.