New Zealand Team analysis for World Cup 2015: A Dark horse contender

New Zealand Team analysis for World Cup 2015: A Dark horse contender: New Zealand cricket team is always considered as a tuff competitor in any international competition. But a trophy has always eluded them in an ICC tournament. Six time semifinalist in 50 over World cup but no trophy. The only ICC tournament New Zealand has won is ICC Champions trophy way back in year 2000. Playing in home conditions will New Zealand be able to put up a better show this time? Well, let’s try to find out the answer by analyzing New Zealand 15 member World cup squad.

Batting

Lead by dazzling Brendon McCullum Kiwis team have Martin Guptill, Tom Latham, Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Grant Elliott, Corey Anderson and wicket keeper batsman Luke Ronchi. The biggest strength of this batting line up is Kane Williamson. He might be only 24 years of age and played 60 odd games for New Zealand but he has the head and temperament of someone who has played some 150 plus ODI games. Williamson is technically correct and is in sublime form at the moment. New Zealand always lacked a batsman who could play 50 overs and build a platform for the big scores. Williamson stay at the crease provides the other batsmen an opportunity to play around him and build big scores. The aggressive flavor of Brendon McCullum, Corey Anderson and the calmness of Kane Williamson makes this Kiwi batting line up a formidable batting combination. Flexibility in batting order is another positive for this batting unit. New Zealand captain has been pretty flexible in terms of batting order as the match situation demands and his players have responded well to their captain calls. Another plus point in this line up is that Kiwis bat deep, even a no. 9 or no. 10 is not a throw away batsman. Overall a good batting unit playing in known home conditions who can challenge the best bowlers in the world.

Bowling

New Zealand bowling comprises of Tim Southee, Dan Vettori, Kyle Mills, Adam Milne,Trent Boult, Mitchell McClenaghan, Nathan McCullum and Corey Anderson.The biggest strength of this bowling line up is their unfamiliarity for the opponent batsmen. Not many batsmen around the world have played these bowlers which might take time for them to get used to these bowlers. I find Tim Southee as the leader of this attack who evolved himself as bowler over the years. New Zealand has brought back Dan Vettori in the team probably with an idea of using Vettori’s vast experience. In my opinion, inclusion of Vettori robs off the unfamiliarity and unpredictability factor tagged to this bowling line up. It would have been more apt had New Zealand picked up someone like Ish Sodhi or Mark Craig.

X-Factor

Kane Williamson is the X-factor for this Kiwi team. Having scored tons of runs in the recent past, I won’t be surprised if Williamson comes in a tuff situation and takes the game away from the opposition.

Best Result

Semi-finalists (1975), Semi-finalists (1979), Semi-finalists (1992), Semi-finalists (1999), Semi-finalists (2007), Semi-finalists (2011)

Overall

Looking at the New Zealand side, a semi final berth for them looks a certainty to me.