India vs New Zealand 2019: Coach Gary Stead Remains Unhappy with Middle Order, Wants Batsmen to Fire
Published - 27 Jan 2019, 01:27 PM | Updated - 22 Aug 2024, 11:59 PM
New Zealand head coach, Gary Stead has expressed concerns over the failure of the middle-order during the ODI series. In the second match at the Bay Oval, none of the middle-order batsmen scored more than 34 runs; thus resulting in a 90-run loss at the hands of India. Meanwhile, the India National Cricket Team is leading the five-match series 2-0. Now for the hosts to come back in the series, they need to win the remaining games, and Stead says for that, the batsmen need to fire.
Building partnerships will be challenging – Gary
Gary Stead has been firm in his opinion that the batsmen have to pull the socks up if the Kiwis seeks a series win from here on. He added building partnerships would be challenging against India, but the hosts have no other option.
Meanwhile, NZ had recently won the ODI bilateral series against Sri Lanka, blanking them across three matches. Claiming they have players later in the ranks to turn the tables around, the head coach said the top order has to do the bulk of the scoring.
“We haven’t built partnerships across the whole top six or seven,” Stead began. “That was the strength of what we did so well against Sri Lanka, that’s what we haven’t clicked and done here yet. As a batting unit, that’s going to be our challenge going into the next three games – to build those partnerships and that’s everyone.”
“Our guys have played enough cricket – they know that you can’t rely on the lower order to win you those games. It’s got to be the top order to score the majority of the runs. We haven’t done that in the two games as yet.”
Indian spinners are very, very effective – Stead
In the two ODIs so far, neither the opening batsmen fired nor the middle-order, raising worries over their approach heading into the 2019 World Cup. For the hosts, what created problem was the spin duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal.
The pair in the middle-order had taken wickets in bulk. Though Chahal has bagged four wickets in two games, Kuldeep has scalped as many as eight wickets in two outings.
“It’s not that we can’t play spin bowling, we’ve just taken some options that haven’t been the best options at times. I have faith in our guys. We played the spin bowling very well against Sri Lanka and they had a lot of spinners, so it’s not like we can’t – we just haven’t done it effectively.”
“The two wrist spinners that they [India] have here are very, very effective bowlers. Our challenge is to find a way to be better.”
However, the coach says he has complete faith in his batsmen to come good against them in the remaining games.
“I have faith in all of our squad that they can do a job there.
“We’re still – I guess in some ways – experimenting what our very best team is. That’s an on-going thing and it’ll probably change with the conditions that we have as well.”
Meanwhile, the third of the five matches is scheduled for Monday at the Bay Oval itself.
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