New Zealand vs India 2020: Ravi Shastri not worried about toss factor

Over the past couple of years, India have developed a reputation of being one of the most competitive travelling cricket teams in the world.

Although they lost the Test series in South Africa and England, they were competitive and finally reaped the reward by winning the Test series in Australia.

Indian head coach Ravi Shastri believes that this competitiveness made the team believe that they could win any game, irrespective of whether the toss goes their way or not.

Shastri told PTI ahead of the start of India’s tour of New Zealand,

“That toss will be taken out of the equation, we will play well irrespective of conditions, of opponents and in every country of the world. That’s what our aim is and that is what we are chasing. Yes, the World Cup remains an obsession and we will do all to fulfil that ambition.

“The word ‘I’ is not there in our dictionary. It’s ‘we’. That’s what this team stands for. It celebrates each other’s achievements because it’s the team that wins.”

India suffered a 1-0 series loss to New Zealand in Tests the last time they played in the country in 2013-14. But this time around, they have a much better pace attack and if the Black Caps use the tactic of dishing out green tops, the plan could backfire.

But Shastri is not thinking too much into it as he wants to cross the bridge when it arrives. He believes that India have all the bases covered for any condition.

“We, as a team, don’t think about all that. We address something when we see it. We see facts, we address. We don’t go into the history or the past.”

NEWS: India’s ODI squad against New Zealand announced: Kohli (C), R. Sharma (VC), P. Shaw, Rahul, Shreyas, M. Pandey, Pant (WK), S. Dube, Kuldeep, Chahal, Jadeja, Bumrah, Shami, Saini, S. Thakur, KedarDhawan ruled out of T20I and ODI series. Details - https://t.co/lw5gZey833 pic.twitter.com/5ATv8QTLLe

— BCCI (@BCCI) January 21, 2020

Here's the complete schedule for India's tour of New Zealand.