New Zealand vice-captain Tom Latham hailed Team India as a dangerous side and said that it would be challenging facing the Virat Kohli-led side in ICC World Test Championship (WTC 2021) final.
New Zealand thumped England by 8 wickets in the second match of the two-Test series to clinch their first Test series win since 1999 in England. With the win in the second Test match against Joe Root-led England, the Black Caps are back to the top of the ICC Test rankings.
However, focus now shifts to ICC World Test Championship (WTC) where the Kane Williamson-led New Zealand will lock horns against Team India at the Ageas Bowl, Southampton from June 18th.
Speaking at the post match press conference after the Test series win against England, New Zealand’s Tom Latham lauded Team India saying that they’ve to be at their best to beat them in the WTC final. He added that they’ve to shift their focus and adapt to India as they are different from England.
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"All around the board. They've got a fantastic set of bowlers, a lot of quality batsmen that have scored runs in different conditions all round the world. They were over here a few years ago and played really well, so we know we'll have to play well to beat them.
“The preparation has been great but it's important that we do shift our focus and adapt to a completely different side," Tom Latham said at the post-match press conference.
Latham remarked now they have defeated England in the Test series, their focus now shifts to Team India.
“Both sounds pretty good. From our point of view, it was about coming here and focusing on these first two Test matches against England and trying to continue doing what we've been doing over a couple of years now. Now that we've ticked them off, it's important that our focus shifts to India in a couple of days,” he said.
Tom Latham further said that winning a Test series in England is a fantastic achievement for them. He added that they did well in the second Test match and got their reward.
"It's a fantastic achievement from the group. I think it's important that we celebrate with each other. It hasn't been done since '99. It's certainly an achievement that's worth celebrating.
“For us to come here as a group, it was about trying to play our brand of cricket and I thought we did that really well over the four days and got our rewards at the end,” he concluded.
(PTI inputs)
