India is set to face their toughest test in this ongoing ICC World Cup 2023 as they face New Zealand in the 21st match of the tournament. This encounter will be hosted by the HPCA stadium in Dharamshala on October 22, 2023.
Both the teams are coming into this exciting match undefeated in the tournament so far. But the interesting stat is that India hasn’t defeated New Zealand in an ICC event match since the 2003 World Cup in South Africa.
In the ODI World Cups, both teams have encountered each other 8 times and the Blackcaps have emerged victorious five times. Their most recent win in ODI World Cups over India came in the semi-final of the 2019 edition.
Ahead of the highly anticipated clash, Kohli talked about the factors that contribute to the dominance New Zealand has enjoyed in the World Cup.
"They are a very professional side and a very structured side, they have a very structured way of playing their cricket. But within that structure, they have been very consistent and that has been the reason for their success. Credit to the side for the way that they are playing. Any team that plays against them has to find a way to break their rhythm and playing to the best of their abilities which will eventually decide whether you can cope up with their consistency or not because they are not a team that makes many mistakes. That's been their strength and at the international level if you don't make many mistakes then you have a good chance of winning the game more often," Kohli told Star Sports.
Speaking on the same topic, India captain Rohit Sharma praised New Zealand's tactical prowess which makes them a tough team to compete.
He said: "I think when I talk about tactical New Zealand comes to my mind. I feel they are tactically very strong they bat according to the plans that have been given to them. When you play against them you know some sort of planning has been done against each individual. They have beaten us in the ICC tournaments regularly so for us it is important that we try to understand the situation first what we need to do as individuals and try to play the game."
(ANI inputs)
