'Meaningless series 72 hours after WC final loss' - Mitchell McClenaghan silences fan's taunt

New Zealand seamer Mitchell McClenaghan branded the ongoing three-T20I India-New Zealand series as “meaningless” in response to a Twitter user who pointed out his team’s series loss. The Tim Southee-led unit is 0-2 behind, after losses at Jaipur and Ranchi and will have only pride to play for in the final encounter on November 21 at Kolkata’s Eden Garden, before the two-Test series kickstarts from November 25 in Kanpur.

McClenaghan, who frequently engages with fans and followers on Twitter, seemed upset when a fan wrote, “New Zealand lose series” in response to McClenaghan’s tributary post for AB de Villiers, who announced his retirement from all cricket on November 19.

“Did they? You mean in meaningless series 72 hours after a WC final defeat with 3 games in 5 days playing a team with 10 days rest in their home conditions?” read McClenaghan’s response.

New Zealand were one of the finalists of the recently-concluded T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates, where they finished second-best after losing to Australia in the final. Kane Williamson and Co., drafted alongside three Asian nations in their Super12s group, contributed to India’s premature exit, defeating them convincingly after losing their opening encounter to Pakistan.

While the victory over India marked the beginning of a five-match winning streak for New Zealand, including the semi-final triumph versus England, Virat Kohli’s men could not proceed further in what was the first instance of the team crashing out in the group stage of an ICC event after 2012.

India played their last game against Namibia on November 8, however, the eventual runners-up New Zealand played one must-win encounter after another until as late as November 14, the date of the titular clash against Australia.

Hours later, the team flew from Sharjah to Jaipur for the T20I series, which commenced within 72 hours of the finale loss to Australia, which prompted a reaction from both Gary Stead, head coach, and Tim Southee, the stand-in skipper in the absence of Kane Williamson, who opted out of the limited-overs series in a bid to focus on the subsequent Test series. Later, pacer Kyle Jamieson joined him.

“It’s the first time that I can remember that we’re so quickly into another series immediately at the back-end of the T20 World Cup. It’s definitely tough and challenging but it is what is in front of us,” Stead had said.

Southee echoed similar sentiments: “It’s obviously a pretty busy schedule, we knew this was going to be the case even leading into the T20 World Cup,” Southee said before the Jaipur T20I.

“With what’s happened in the world in the last couple of years, it’s made things a lot tougher with bubbles, quarantine, and it does take its toll. After a while, we don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, whether we’re going to have to continue to play in bubbles and schedules having more pressure on with quarantine time thrown in as well. It’s something we can’t control and something we just have to adapt to and get used to but it does take its toll.”

Did they? You mean in meaningless series 72 hours after a WC final defeat with 3 games in 5 days playing a team with 10 days rest in their home conditions? https://t.co/jldmmH58YZ

— Mitchell McClenaghan (@Mitch_Savage) November 20, 2021