IND vs NZ | Will take confidence from how we handled spinners in Hamilton, states Martin Guptill

IND vs NZ | Will take confidence from how we handled spinners in Hamilton, states Martin Guptill

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New Zealand opener Martin Guptill, who registered a 41-ball 32 in the 1st ODI, stated that the team, heading into the 2nd ODI in Auckland, will take confidence from the way they played spinners in Hamilton. Guptill further revealed that he has his eyes set on playing the 2023 World Cup.

India’s limited-overs tour of the Kiwis in early 2019 was one dominated by the spinners, with the duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal spinning a web around the New Zealand batsmen and thus helping the visitors clinch the series 4-1. However, things took a wild turn in the first ODI in Hamilton on Tuesday, as the Kiwi batsmen smashed the Indian spinners to smithereens, taking them to the cleaners by accumulating 148 runs off the duo of Kuldeep and Jadeja.

New Zealand opener Martin Guptill, who laid the foundation for the chase in the first ODI with a well-composed 32, revealed that heading into the second ODI in Auckland, his team will take confidence from the way they handled the spinners in the first match, and further asserted that the hosts will look to dominate the Indian bowlers from ball one, even at the cost of losing wickets.

“We can take confidence in how we played the spinners from the first match. It is a completely different situation. You can be a little more attacking here as the ball is not going to spin much,” Guptill said in the pre-match press conference, reported India Today.

"We want to be as positive as possible. Once we get out there tomorrow, we will see how we go. If being positive means you losing two wickets early, so be it. My role does not change in the team, my role is to provide the team a quick start.”

Defending 348, Jasprit Bumrah was primed to be India’s weapon on a flat Hamilton deck, with the pacer having already rattled the hosts during India’s clean sweep in the T20Is. However, the Kiwis negated him with ease - initially with the new ball and then at the death - and Guptill revealed that batsmen get used to Bumrah’s unorthodox action the more they play him and expressed his satisfaction over how his side played the pacer with ease in the first ODI.

"You definitely get used to him with time, he has a unique action. We played him (Bumrah) well in the first match. We negated him from taking early wickets,” the opener said.

At 33, time is not on Guptill’s side, but the opener - who has misfired in the 50-over format over the course of the last 6 months -  barring injuries, is hopeful of making it to the 2023 World Cup squad. 

"Absolutely. Pending body issues and form and things like that, hopefully, I can stick around and put enough numbers on the board to be in that squad," he said, when asked about his desire to play in the 2023 World Cup.

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