New Zealand announce their Squad: All the teams participating in the T20 World Cup 2022 were supposed to announce their final squad for the tournament about a week ago but some teams missed the deadline. The list of teams that missed the deadline included a big name which was that of New Zealand. They had some final decisions to make even after the deadline and thus the Kiwis waited for the right moment. They have now finally completed all permutations and combinations and announced their squad just a few hours ago.
New Zealand have never had the best squad in the world (on-paper) but when it comes to performances, they have always done well in International tournaments, especially in the last few years. They have reached the final of almost all of the last World Cups (2021 T20 World Cup, 2019 ODI World Cup, 2015 ODI World Cup) and are thus highly qualified to be called not only one of top 3 sides in the world performance-wise but also one of the favourites to win the 2022 T20 World Cup.
As the tournament is being played in Australia this season, New Zealand will have an advantage just like the host nation as the two countries are very closely situated and the pitch conditions of Australia and New Zealand are almost the same.
Let us first take a look at New Zealand’s squad first before commenting further about them.
New Zealand squad: Kane Williamson (C), Adam Milne, Daryl Mitchell, Jimmy Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Finn Allen, Trent Boult, Michael Bracewell, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway (wk), Lockie Ferguson, Martin Guptill.
The bowling attack of Trent Boult, Tim Southee, Lockie Ferguson and Ish Sodhi, as we all know, is one of the best in International cricket. New Zealand have one of the most effective and well-rounded bowling attacks in the world and that is their biggest strength. They thus decided not to take any calculated risk in the upcoming T20 World Cup as well.
Apart from the addition of Finn Allen in the team, they have also kept the same faces in their batting lineup as they had a year ago. Daryl Mitchell, Devon Conway and Kane Williamson are three of the most responsible batters you can get in modern cricket and they are the most vital elements in this New Zealand batting lineup.
Overall, it is a squad which has a very high chance of lifting the T20 World Cup 2022 trophy.