New Zealand vs India 2019: 4 Takeaways from the ODI series

#2 Fragility of New Zealand’s Batting

Martin Guptill was one of the New Zealand batsmen who had an ordinary series

The most surprising aspect of this series was the poor performance of New Zealand with the bat.

A batting line-up with the likes of Guptill, Williamson and Taylor in the ranks and further strengthened by talented men like Latham and Nicholls should have done better.

The biggest problem for the Kiwis in this series was their brittleness against spin. Both Kuldeep and Chahal proved too much to handle for home batters with their tricks and wiles.

But what should really make them cringe was the success that Kedar Jadhav was able to achieve.

The innocuous offie hardly turns the ball and only has his weird action to commend himself. But the New Zealanders kept getting out to harmless deliveries from him.

This weakness could come back to haunt them in the World Cup. Not only would they have to deal with the Indian spinners again but other tweakers like Adil Rashid and Shadab Khan may also cause problems.

The two batsmen that would be most crucial are Williamson and Latham. They are the best players of slow bowling in the team and have to lead the way in the line-up becoming more adept against spinners.

The other problem is at the top of the order. Both Guptill and Munro failed miserably in this series.

While Guptill has enough credit in the bank to retain his place in the team, Munro is under pressure and may well face the axe.

His role is of the dasher but also requires substantial contributions. That hasn’t come. It would be interesting to see whether a new opener is brought in for the next series.