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Wasim Jaffer has flagged New Zealand's Achilles heel ahead of the World Test Championship (WTC) final against India. The former opener suggested that the Kiwis have a 'pattern' of failing to win games from sticky situations and Virat Kohli's men could exploit it by putting them straightaway under pressure at Southampton.
Wasim Jaffer pointed to India's recent Test rubbers against Australia and England, where they lost the first Tests before comprehensively winning the series. He observed that New Zealand haven't done anything similar in the last few years and only won Tests where they dominated or were in the hunt right from the start.
"I feel there's a bit of a pattern with New Zealand. Looking at their stats over the last few years, they have not come back from behind and won a Test match. They have always won Test matches when they have dominated or have been an equal team during the game. Like how the Indian team won in Australia, they came from behind, and even against England, they lost the first Test and won 3-1 that series. I have not seen that with New Zealand. So, if the Indian team can put them under pressure straight away, then I think we have got a good chance to win this championship," Wasim Jaffer said on his YouTube channel on Wednesday.
India defeated Australia 2-1 and followed it up with a thumping 3-1 win against England at home. New Zealand, on the other hand, are coming off a stunning 1-0 win against Joe Root at Co. and have also whitewashed Pakistan, West Indies and India at home in the last 18 months.
"New Zealand's win against England speaks volumes of their quality as a side" - Wasim Jaffer
Despite the peculiar pattern, Wasim Jaffer waxed lyrical about Kane Williamson's team for their performance in the inaugural WTC. He also hailed the team for their brilliant bench strength - a trait which has increasingly been associated with India - and remarked that their victory against England was the perfect show of quality.
"When you reach the final of a championship after playing 2.5 years of cricket, you deserve to be there. You must have played some really good cricket to get there. They have beaten the West Indies and Pakistan, white-washed India. And even in England now, in both matches they dominated the England team," he said.
On top of that, they benched [some of] their players also. Southee didn't play a game, Williamson was injured, Jamieson was given rest... Mitchell Santner played one game and they brought Ajaz Patel... so that speaks about their bench strength also. They have also used their bench strength in the two Tests and despite that, they have dominated and won a series in England since 1999. That speaks volumes of their quality as a side," added Wasim Jaffer.
The highly-anticipated clash will be played between June 18-22 with June 23 kept as a reserve day.
