New Zealand captain Michael Bracewell on Tuesday said it would be “silly to underestimate” Indian batting greats Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, backing the two stalwarts to feature in next year’s ODI World Cup.
Kohli and Rohit, now single-format players for India, are set to return to action in the three-match ODI series against New Zealand starting Sunday in Vadodara.
The second and third matches will be played on 14 and 18 January in Rajkot and Indore respectively.
Bracewell, who will lead New Zealand in the ODIs with key players such as Mitchell Santner, Tom Latham and Rachin Ravindra missing from the touring squad, spoke highly of the Indian duo on the sidelines of the New Zealand Cricket Golf Day organised by NZC in partnership with TCM Sports at the Willingdon Sports Club.
“I'd like to see them (Rohit and Virat) play in the World Cup. They're obviously still playing very good cricket so there's no reason to stop,” Bracewell said.
“They're both playing beautifully, so why not? Their records speak for themselves, both individually and as a team. They've been involved in some great Indian sides and led that side with the bat. You'd be silly to underestimate them, that's for sure,” he added.
The New Zealand skipper acknowledged the challenge of replacing experienced campaigners like Santner, but stressed the importance of collective effort.
“It's a tricky one. Whenever you're missing players of say, Mitch Santner's calibre, you're always going to be struggling to replace them. So, you're asking guys to come in and do their role as best as they can,” Bracewell said.
“You're never going to be able to replace a guy like that. But if everyone mucks in and does their bit, then hopefully we can all work together and achieve great things on this tour,” he added.
With the T20 World Cup just over a month away, Bracewell said the ODI series still carried significant relevance.
“You have to be where your feet are and and take care of what's in front of you. We've obviously got an important one-day series coming up against India,” he said.
“One-day cricket has a lot of different skill-sets involved in it. You have to be able to bat for long periods of time and then apply pressure. We're gonna spend a little bit of time here leading into the World Cup so, that's very valuable for us as a team and individually to get used to the conditions,” the 34-year-old added.
New Zealand fast-bowling all-rounder Kyle Jamieson highlighted the presence of several new faces in the squad.
“We have a couple of new quick bowlers, Michael Rae had a couple of Tests against the West Indies,” Jamieson said.
“Kristian Clarke is young up-and-coming all-rounder, he's (captain) got some talent and we've got Jayden Lennox as well, (a) left-arm spinner. So he has a few sort of fresh faces... guys that have played only a handful of games as well.”
Jamieson also said the extended stay in India ahead of the T20 World Cup would be beneficial for New Zealand.
“For every team that lands in this country for the T20 World Cup, (they) want to win it and we're no different,” he said.
“We've got a nice month here to try and prepare through the ODIs and the five-match T20I series and certainly we'll be trying to put our best foot forward to do as well as we can.”
“We'll be where our feet are and we'll worry about the first three ODIs and the T20s afterwards and then move on to the challenge of the World Cup,” he added.
Meanwhile, TCM Sports managing director Lokesh Sharma spoke about the collaboration with New Zealand Cricket.
“The New Zealand Cricket Golf Day brought together the right mix of people, conversations, and values. We are pleased to collaborate with NZC on a format that reflects their culture while strengthening relationships in an important market like India,” Sharma said.
