New Zealand is set to kick off their ICC World Test Championship (WTC) title defence with the upcoming two-match Test series against India starting on November 25 at Green Park Stadium in Kanpur.
Ahead of their first Test of the next World Test Championship cycle, Neil Wagner said that winning the World Test Championship mace was pretty special and they remain proud of the triumph, but now New Zealand must set sights on defending the title by performing their best in the coming matches.
He wants New Zealand to keep playing the same brand of cricket in order to defend the WTC title and make the country proud again, saying they are ready for the India challenge.
Wagner said in a video shared by New Zealand Cricket (NZC): “No-one can take it away from you. It's something that's pretty special and I'm still pretty proud of. I guess the main thing for us now is to put our heads down, and try and defend it, give ourselves the best chance to play the cricket we've been playing - the brand we've been playing - and make New Zealanders proud.”
He added, “Whatever the result is, as long as we leave everything out there and give it our best, give it our all, and play the way we play, the rest will take care of itself. Hopefully, things can unfold our way, but yeah pretty confident that the crew we've got here is ready to get stuck in and put their hand up.”
Meanwhile, the experienced pacer admitted that he lacks match practice due to COVID-19, but is looking forward to playing in the Indian conditions in the upcoming Test series.
He said, “Not the ideal preparation leading in, with COVID around at home, I haven't been able to play any domestic cricket leading up to it. It's a little frustrating, but it's one of those uncontrollable factors. For now, it's quite nice to actually hit the ground running.”
Wagner further stressed that it is important to adapt to the conditions and mentioned that India is a very tough place to play and the margin of error is quite small.
The pacer explained, “It's just about adapting to the heat, obviously trying to stay dry as much as you can and knowing that the ball's not going to swing for very long. You've got to be quite tight on your lines and heavy on those lengths, be quite ruthless. Like I said the margin of error is quite small.”
He signed off by saying, “It is a tough place to play, but I think everyone's looking forward to that challenge - which is tough over here, it's called test cricket.”
(With ANI Inputs)
