New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner has given plenty of praise to India’s returning pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar ahead of the five-match T20I series. Speaking on the eve of the opener at Hagley Oval in Christchurch, Santner highlighted how the conditions down under could suit the veteran perfectly.
He pointed out that even on the flatter tracks in India, the right arm pacer still manages to nip and swing the ball. “I think Bhuvi will love these conditions in New Zealand. If there’s anything in the wicket, he’ll find something out of it. So with the new ball out here especially, he’ll be a challenge,” he said.
The New Zealand captain went a step further, taking a slight dig at the high-scoring nature of recent cricket in India. “I mean in India it’s pretty challenging as a bowler these days, like we’ve seen in the recent series [against West Indies], 250 getting chased down-who wants to be a bowler? – but he might like it out here a little better.” he added.
Bhuvneshwar is back in the T20I setup after nearly four years. His ability to extract movement with the new ball makes him a genuine threat on New Zealand pitches that often offer seam and swing, especially early in the season. Santner expects varying conditions across the series and the first game at Hagley Oval could help bowlers due to bigger boundaries and possible early movement while later pitches may flatten out.
India set to take on New Zealand in the first T20I at Christchurch
The five-match T20I series kicks off on 22 October at Christchurch and will go on till 1 November across four venues. India will be led by Shreyas Iyer and come into this series after a high-scoring home series against West Indies and with limited preparation time. They will miss some of their key players which include Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya. The bowling attack will depend on experience from Bhuvneshwar Kumar and the returning Varun Chakravarthy, alongside Arshdeep Singh and all-round options like Axar Patel, Shivam Dube and Nitish Kumar Reddy.
India’s batting remains explosive with Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Sanju Samson, Tilak Varma all capable of putting up big scores. Only a few players from the squad have T20I experience in New Zealand, so adapting to cooler weather, possible seam movement and bigger boundaries at some grounds will be crucial. New Zealand will be led by Mitchell Santner and have named a full strength squad with the likes of Henry, Lockie Ferguson and Kyle Jamieson returning to the side.
