"India will need this win going forward in this World Cup" - Veda Krishnamurthy on the women's team's clash against New Zealand

Veda Krishnamurthy believes Team India's upcoming clash against New Zealand is extremely crucial to their prospects in the ongoing Women's World Cup.

The Indian women's team started their World Cup campaign on a bright note by thrashing Pakistan by 107 runs. On the flip side, the White Ferns suffered a reversal against West Indies in their first match but bounced back to annihilate Bangladesh by nine wickets in their second game.

While previewing the India-New Zealand clash on Cricket.com, Veda Krishnamurthy emphasized the importance of the match for both sides. She observed:

"This game is actually crucial for both of them, considering New Zealand has lost to West Indies. So they will be all pumped and raring to go. But at the same time, India will need this win going forward in this World Cup."

The middle-order batter pointed out that Team India should have their plans in place for this encounter and just need to execute them. Veda Krishnamurthy explained:

"This is one game where we [Team India] are very sure of what needs to be done, player-wise, plan-wise. Now it is all about executing that because if we plan and we won't be able to execute, then there is no point of all this planning and plotting. This is the game to execute their plans really well."

While highlighting that both sides would be familiar with each other's games, Veda Krishnamurthy reckons that it will be a tight contest.

"Now they know the strengths and the weaknesses, how New Zealand go about with their batting order or bowling. So there is an idea of how things will work. It is going to be a tough game because like I am saying we know them, New Zealand knows our strengths and weaknesses as well and it's like recent fresh memory in the head."

Team India played New Zealand in a five-match ODI series apart from a T20I ahead of the Women's World Cup. Although they lost the ODI series by a 4-1 margin, they were without the services of Smriti Mandhana and Meghna Singh for the majority of the matches and would have gotten acquainted with the conditions and the opposition.

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"I am keen to see Jess Kerr and Smriti Mandhana" - Veda Krishnamurthy

Smriti Mandhana will hope to give Team India a flying start

Veda Krishnamurthy picked Smriti Mandhana against Jess Kerr and Harmanpreet Kaur versus Amelia Kerr as the key battles in the match. She said:

"I am keen to see Jess Kerr and Smriti Mandhana, how they go about at the start. If Amelia Kerr is bowling in between, then how she will bowl to Harmanpreet."

Veda Krishnamurthy also picked Amelia Kerr, Suzie Bates and Jess Kerr as the three Kiwi players to watch out for.