Shane Watson lauds New Zealand's win over India before their match

Australian all-rounder Shane Watson lauded New Zealand’s decision of playing three spinners and dropping Trent Boult and Tim Southee against India. New Zealand defeated India by 47 runs, defending a target of 127 and bowling India out for just 79 runs.

Australia will start their ICC World T20 2016 campaign against New Zealand in Dharamshala; a venue that has been marred by continues rainfall for past few days. The pitch at Dharamshala is considered to be a pacy one, but Watson expected even this pitch to turn.

Australia is considered to be the favourites to win the tournament, a trophy that has so far eluded their cabinet of tournament wins. They are grouped with New Zealand, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. New Zealand beat India by wonderful use of spin bowling, as their trio of spinners picked up 9 out of 10 Indian wickets to fall. Watson says he was surprised to see that much spin on the pitch.

“I’m not sure if I’ve seen a wicket turn as much as it did last night. It was incredible how much the ball turned.Obviously, in New Zealand’s innings the balls turned quite a bit but when New Zealand was bowling… goodness me, the ball turned a hell of a lot. The Indian players are very good players of spin, but that pitch was turning huge amounts so I’m not sure if they were hoping for those conditions exactly.” Watson said.

He also praised the Kiwi tam management’s decision to keep Tim Southee and Trent Boult out of the team, Watson said “It took a lot of courage to go against the grind from what you normally would, coming out here and not playing [Trent] Boult and [Tim] Southee and playing three spinners, it certainly paid dividends. That is the flexibility you should have in these sort of tournaments depending on what conditions come around.”

Though Australia lack a top quality spinner in their ranks, Watson was confident that any bowler can do well, if he applied himself correctly on that pitch and he cited the example of young Jasprit Bumrah, Watson said “Spin isn’t the only way to do well here. We have other options in the side. Last night, Jasprit Bumrah showed if the bowler has the skills, you don’t need to be a spinner to be good in these conditions and in that way we have plenty of skilful bowlers who can be useful in these conditions.”

Australia have a dominant record against the Kiwis in the ICC World Cup tournaments and Watson was confident of beating New Zealand in order to get a good start in the tournament, before going on to face sides like Pakistan and India in the group.