New Zealand coach Glenn Pocknall said on Tuesday that his team was well-prepared for the three-match ODI series against Pakistan, which begins on Friday at Pindi Cricket Stadium in Rawalpindi.
At a Zoom press conference, he said, “We feel very well-prepared and will not make many changes in the lineup that featured in the T20 series against Bangladesh.”
The Black Caps have arrived in Pakistan after losing a Twenty20 international series to Bangladesh by a score of 2-3.
Glenn stated that after his team’s first two games in Bangladesh, people expected them to lose all of their matches, but the guys bounced back and won two of the final three.
“Those two wins have given a huge amount of confidence to the players. That confidence is still there.”
“The guys are really excited to be here to play international cricket. It’s been a long time coming so they are really grateful to have this opportunity.
“Pakistan are a very good side in home conditions, hence challenges lie ahead for our players. But I presume they’ve got a very exciting chance to have a crack at this very good Pakistan side.”
He said that though the spinners would play a role at Rawalpindi but it would not be like Bangladesh where New Zealand batters struggled against spinners.
“I don’t believe spinners are going to play a big part in this series as they did in Bangladesh as there were probably extreme [weather] conditions.
“On the basis of the brief training session, which we had here yesterday [Monday] I can say the fast bowlers will play a bit more role. We’ve also got a decent fast bowling attack. He said the T20 series in Bangladesh was very much like an ODI series in terms of the way the players played there. “Like ODIs, a lot more singles were taken there in T20s as opposed to boundaries. Hence, in that respect our batters are fully prepared for ODI matches here.”
“The main difference between the Bangladesh and Pakistan tours is that here in ODI series we’ll have to do things for longer. The bowlers will be bowling longer spells and the batters staying longer at the crease. Similarly, the players will have to spend pretty much time in the ground while fielding.”
He said around 250 to 280 runs on the board would be a decent total at Rawalpindi. “Currently, we don’t know how the surface will behave. Hence, we’ll try to gather as much information as we can [about it] while training here during the next couple of days.”
