New Zealand’s head coach Gary Stead has knowledgeable that the Blackcaps have opted out of the warm-up games supplied by the International Cricket Council (ICC) in the lead-up to the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 event due to logistical challenges.
Notably, the members of New Zealand’s World Cup squad will arrive in the Caribbean in a number of batches between May 23 to June 1 and therefore it could turn out to be very tough for all the squad to assemble in time for the warm-ups.
Instead of warm-ups, the group will indulge in a number of coaching classes forward of their marketing campaign opener towards Afghanistan on June 7 and depend on their expertise of taking part in in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) to do effectively in the event.
“West Indies is a tough place to get to for a start, so it’s not easy to get everyone to Trinidad and Tobago at the same time,” head coach Gary Stead stated. “For us, we don’t have warm-up games. There’s a number of guys who have been in the IPL for the final two months and we have additionally just lately come off the tour to Pakistan.
“There’s a lot of experience in the group who have played in the CPL before, so we’ll be leaning on those guys and making sure the trainings we get prior to the first game puts us in a position of where we want to be,” he added.
Kane Williamson (Barbados Tridents), James Neesham (Guyana Amazon Warriors and Trinbago Knight Riders), Glenn Phillips (Barbados Royals and Jamaica Tallawahs), Ish Sodhi (Jamaica Tallawahs and St Kitts and Nevis Patriots) amongst different Kiwi gamers who’re a component of New Zealand’s World Cup squad have already performed for a number of CPL franchises and subsequently the unit can depend on their expertise.
Apart from Matt Henry and Rachin Ravindra all the opposite gamers who’re a component of the World Cup squad have the expertise of taking part in in the T20 World Cup and Stead feels that may assist the unit this time round.
“We’ve only got two players who haven’t been to a T20 World Cup that are in this squad. That shows our group is experienced and they can lean back on those past experiences,” he concluded.
