Review of New Zealand squad

The Kiwis are the first team to announce their 15 man squad for the upcoming World cup 2019. The squad, at first sight, is just fantastic and they have all bases covered and a blend of youth and experience. As instructed by ICC only a 15 member squad should be named by all sides, which makes the cricket boards make some tough decisions that they have to leave out some big names. New Zealand have left out their reputed big hitting all-rounder, Corey Anderson. Though Corey Anderson is not in the best of his form, he would walk straight into most of the other teams around the world, which shows the strength of New Zealand and the confidence they have on the players they selected.

Squad

• Kane williamson (captain)
• Tom Latham(vice-captain)(Wk)
• Ross Taylor
• Martin Guptill
• Colin Munro
• Henry Nicholls
• Tim Southee
• Matt Henry
• Trent Boult
• Lockie Ferguson
• Mitchell Santner
• Ish Sodhi
• Jimmy Neesham
• Colin De Grandhomme
• Tom Blundel(Wk)

They have left out Tim Seifert who had a terrific outing in the T20 series against India in the recently concluded series due to injury, so they have named an equally abled Tom Blundell in place of him. The Wellington boy has had a terrific domestic season and he deserved to be in the squad as a backup wicket keeper to Latham.

The squad consists of two seam bowling all rounders and a spin bowling all-rounder. This shows that they have depth in their squad and can rotate their players based on the condition.

Their top and middle order is rock solid with Williamson, Taylor, and Latham. They have some big hitter in the end with Neesham and De Grandhomme. This batting order can destroy any bowling attack on their day.

Their bowling looks a settled unit as well with the likes of Boult, Southee, Lockie, Henry. If the ball tends to swing and seam in England then it should be curtains for the Batsmen, after all, who could forget their bowling performance against India in 4th one day.

The first concern they have is they are yet to fix their opening combination. They tried Henry Nicholls in their last series before world cup against Bangladesh and he performed brilliantly. That could mean Munro will be the backup opener in the squad and they could go with Guptill and Nicholls as their first choice openers. One has to wait and see how Nicholls fares against the new ball when it is seaming and swinging in English conditions as he is not a regular opening batsmen.

The other concern is that how effective will their spinners be in English conditions if the opponent batsmen see off the new ball, the onus will be on their spinners to get regular wickets in middle overs.

My probable XI

• Martin Guptill
• Henry Nicholls
• Kane Williamson
• Ross Taylor
• Tom Latham (Wk)
• Jimmy Neesham
• Colin De Grandhomme
• Mitchell Santner
• Tim Southee
• Lockie Ferguson
• Trent Boult

If the pitch is dry then they might look to bring Ish Sodhi in the place of Southee.

Overall this squad has all the potential to lift the world cup for the first time for their country.