World Cup 2019, Match 18, India vs New Zealand: Why India will win the match
India will take field at the batting paradise of Trent Bridge to play their 3rd match of the ICC World Cup 2019 - against the undefeated New Zealand team. Both India and New Zealand have dominated their opponents in the tournament so far. Thus, the clash between the Kiwis and the Men in Blue promises to deliver an enthralling contest.
India's left-handed opener Shikhar Dhawan has been ruled out of the World Cup for a couple of weeks, which means India will have to tinker with their batting order now. KL Rahul, the reserve opener who was batting in the middle order, will open the innings with Rohit Sharma, while Vijay Shankar is likely to play at the No. 4 spot.
New Zealand recently defeated India in English conditions (in the warm-up match before the World Cup), but the fans should bear in the mind that the Indian team was getting used to the conditions back then. Kohli's men have been unstoppable after that defeat.
Though they will miss the services of Dhawan, Rahul has been in phenomenal touch of late and will be expected to bring his 'A' game at Trent Bridge.
Whether batting first or chasing, the one concern for India would be New Zealand's opening bowlers. If Rohit and Rahul bat patiently in the powerplay overs and see off the new ball, then it should be an easy job for the likes of Kohli, Hardik Pandya and MS Dhoni to exploit the conditions at Nottingham.
As far as India's bowling is concerned, all the top four bowlers of the team - Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav and Yuvendra Chahal - have played their respective roles to perfection so far. They have caused problems to all the opposition batsmen, and the Kiwis would have to be wary of them.
One more thing to be kept in mind is that India have beaten heavyweights Australia and South Africa in the tourney while New Zealand have overcome weaker teams like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
There is no reason why India can't win against New Zealand. If they perform to potential, we can expect the Indian team to head into their match versus Pakistan with tremendous momentum on their side.
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