New Zealand do not get much of a chance to recover from losing the T20 World Cup 2021 final because they are back in T20 action just three days later when they take on an India team who will be reeling from a dismal campaign in that competition.
The Kiwis face a bit of a task to get up for this match you would think but India begin a new era which might help them get going from the off in Jaipur. This is the first of three T20 internationals so whoever wins will go one up with two to play.
India
I would imagine India had their pride dented with the way they bombed out of the T20 World Cup so the first thing Rohit Sharma will need to do as captain of the side is to ensure they set standards which are fitting of an India team. The good thing for any team which had a poor campaign in the UAE is that we are 11 months away from the next T20 World Cup so a chance to redeem themselves comes almost immediately. The flip side of that is that preparation time for that tournament is reduced so every game matters.
India didn’t bat like they can at the World Cup. Their last three wins over Afghanistan, Scotland and Namibia, which finished their campaign, just papered over the cracks of the fact they were not good enough earlier in the tournament, even allowing for the fact in both matches which mattered they batted first. Sharma will need to drive the standards with the bat but you would imagine these matches will not quite be toss defined as those were.
New Zealand
While New Zealand will head to India disappointed not to get over the line in the final of the T20 World Cup, when they get a chance to reflect on the tournament I’m sure they will be pleased with the campaign they put together. Losing hurts though and losing in big matches even more so and when you add that loss to the 50 over World Cup final defeat, the Kiwi players will be hurting even more. Like India though, they get a near immediate chance to go again so building up to that needs to be their focus now.
I guess you could argue that New Zealand didn’t bat particularly well in the World Cup. In the semi-final they needed a brutal blitz from Jimmy Neesham to get them home and in the final a quite brilliant display from Kane Williamson got them up to a total which they weren’t able to defend. Up until the final, New Zealand bowled very well which gives them something to build on, but I would be very surprised if that loss is out of their system yet.
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Team News
Now that he isn’t captain India are able to rest Virat Kohli and manage his schedule. They are doing that here and could give a debut to Venkatesh Iyer as a result of that. Ravi Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah are also rested so the likes of Axar Patel and Yuzvendra Chahal could get another opportunity.
New Zealand have chosen to rest Trent Boult, while Devon Conway is still out with the broken hand which forced him to miss the T20 World Cup final. Kane Williamson is also an absentee so you would think there are some big holes to fill. Kyle Jamieson and Mark Chapman are the favourites to fill those gaps.
Betting
This will be the first time a T20 international has been staged here in Jaipur but prior to Covid-19 hitting the world this ground was often the home of the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League and it has staged a number of ODIs. Generally scores on this ground have been high scoring and you would expect the batsmen to get the better of things here, particularly should dew come along in the second innings of the match.
With both sides weaker with the ball than when they met at the T20 World Cup recently I expect the batsmen to perform much better than they did on that occasion. These should be much better batting conditions in which they can showcase their talents too. With that in mind, I think we’ll see a higher scoring contest and although these boundaries are fairly big in Jaipur, the outfield is usually immaculate and the ball flies to the rope if it is hit well. You rarely get a boundaries line of 37.5 in India and that might be too much of an overreaction to what we saw in the UAE. I fancy that gets covered here.
Tips
Back Over 37.5 boundaries for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
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