The mantra to not change a winning team is being strictly adhered to by New Zealand who have stuck with the tried and tested for Sunday’s Cricket World Cup match against Afghanistan.
Victorious in their four tournament outings to date, captain Brendon McCullum said on Saturday they opted against tinkering with the winning formula for the match with the minnows.
“We’ve settled on this as our No.1 at this point, but I’m confident – if injuries do come about – we’ve got the experience and personnel on the sideline that can step up and perform a role.
“The nature of the games we’ve had so far haven’t been overly taxing in terms of the physical demands on our bowlers,” said McCullum.
Opening pair Trent Boult and Tim Southee and veteran spinner Daniel Vettori have shouldered most of the bowling burden, with paceman Adam Milne sending down just 25.2 overs in the tournament to date.
“In an ideal world, he would have bowled a fair few more than that – then we would have been looking to call on someone from the bench. The way the games have unfolded has allowed us the luxury of being able to roll out the same team.”
It means Tom Latham, Nathan McCullum, Kyle Mills and Mitchell McClenaghan are yet to play in the tournament.
“It’s tough on them. They desperately want to play but they’re such strong people off the field and crucial team members and every one of them has a smile on their faces when they turn up to training.
“They’ve all said they’d rather have a bib on than sitting on the couch watching from afar,” he said.
New Zealand’s final pool match is against Bangladesh next week in Hamilton, McCullum hinting they may look to go through the preliminary stage with an unchanged line-up.
“By us naming the team again now, it shows we are confident in the group of guys we’ve got.
“The group they’ve (the selectors) picked is now playing out to be the perfect squad under the circumstances.”
Corey Anderson briefly threw a scare into the camp after taking a blow to his thumb during fielding practice but later took part in a net session.
