New Zealand captain Kane Williamson wants to stick to the process to deal with Bangladesh spin threat in their third game of the ICC Cricket World Cup in Chennai, a venue which historically favours spinners.
Bangladesh have some quality spinners with the likes of Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Mahedi Hasan, Nasum Ahmed playing a vital part alongside captain Shakib Al Hasan.
Nasum is yet to play for the team combination but Shakib and Miraz demolished Afghanistan after getting some assistance from the Dharamsala pitch in their first game.
Mahedi replaced Mahmudullah Riyad for Bangladesh’s second game against England in a pitch which was otherwise a batting paradise, but he ended up claiming his career-best 4-71.
But for Williamson, it is important to keep the winning spree, after winning the first two matches against World Champions England and Netherlands, regardless of what Bangladeshi spinners can do.
“For us as a team it’s really just trying to keep focusing on our plans and what we set out to do and do our roles as best we can, sort of knowing that it could look a little bit different,, to perhaps, our first couple of games,” Williamson, who missed the first two matches due to the injury said.
“We know it’s going to be a big challenge today and as is every game, you know, we come into this tournament knowing that anybody can beat anybody. That makes a really exciting event, I think, and the conditions are always going to change. You go from venue to venue, and they do vary a lot, and we have seen here that there’s been that spin and the pitch has varied perhaps as the games moved on as well, so throughout the day – but definitely I think both teams have some good spin bowlers that no doubt will play a big part today.”
Williamson, however, is excited to be back at the game against a team which he thinks would pose an enormous challenge.
Bangladesh never won a match against New Zealand in the World Cup but pushed them vehemently in 2019’s edition before losing the game by two wickets. Williamson led the narrow victory after surviving a Mushfiqur Rahim blunder behind the wicket.
“It’s been quite a journey but largely a good one that’s had some excellent progress and, you know I’ve said a number of times, really excited to be named in the World Cup squad, be sitting here now and really excited at the prospect of today, which is another big challenge for us. A new venue, new opposition, as we know which always happens in world events. And we’re looking forward to the challenge,” he added.
Williamson further said they would try to apply themselves well as Bangladesh are familiar with this condition.
“I think certainly in the subcontinent, they’re very, very familiar with these conditions, and they have a number of match winners throughout their side, and I keep coming back to the fact that you turn up to world events and every year there’s such a large group of teams that can all beat each other with the variety of conditions with the match winners throughout every team that are here and all the work that goes into actually getting to this tournament,” he said.
“Every team brings a slightly different challenge and, yeah, I think it’s important that, as a side, it’s just trying to connect with the important parts of your game as a team that you want to keep committed to, because it’s a long tournament. Every game’s a tough one. So, it’s trying to keep applying ourselves.”
