{"id":20551,"date":"2019-02-05T18:29:49","date_gmt":"2019-02-05T18:29:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dinnews.in\/?p=20551"},"modified":"2019-02-05T18:29:49","modified_gmt":"2019-02-05T18:29:49","slug":"excited-to-test-nzs-bench-strength-in-t20-series-against-india-williamson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/?p=20551","title":{"rendered":"Excited to test NZ&#8217;s bench strength in T20 series against India: Williamson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The deflating ODI loss behind him, New Zealand captain Kane Williamson Tuesday said he is excited about the prospect of testing unheralded players against a &#8220;top&#8221; team like India in the T20 series starting Wednesday.New Zealand have drafted in two debutants &#8212; all-rounder Daryl Mitchell and right-arm pacer Blair Tickner &#8212; in the T20 squad besides all-rounder Scott Kuggeleijen, who has played just one T20 and wicketkeeper Tim Seifert (8 T20s). The Kiwis lost the five-match ODI series 1-4.Williamson said with Martin Guptill ruled out due to a back injury, some rookie players will be in action in the three-match T20 series against India.<br \/>\n&#8220;Martin (Guptill) has been ruled out of the series because of a back injury. We have a different squad altogether with some new faces. We are going to see some debutants throughout the series and it is really exciting,&#8221; the Kiwi skipper said on the eve of the opening T20.&#8221;It&#8217;s a positive thing that a number of guys are getting opportunities to have those experiences against a fantastic Indian side.&#8221;\u00a0With Guptill not in the scheme of things, Williamson didn&#8217;t rule out the possibility of opening the innings in the T20 matches.<br \/>\n&#8220;At this stage we are going to look at the surface, we are not decided just yet. We are looking to pin down the balance. There are a number of all-rounders which will affect the positions I suppose,&#8221; he said when asked about New Zealand&#8217;s possible opening combination.\u00a0&#8220;There are a number of guys who could potentially fill that role. Obviously (Colin) Munro is expected in the top-three. Power players could potentially move up the order or it could be me,&#8221; he added.Williamson emphasised on the need to balance experienced pacer Tim Southee&#8217;s workload going into the World Cup which will start May 30 in the UK.&#8221;Tim (Southee) has played a huge amount of cricket. He is a massive part of our side. He is a leader in the group,&#8221; he said.<br \/>\nWilliamson said any form of international cricket against a quality side is good for the preparation of the team.<br \/>\n&#8220;Obviously it is the shorter version of what we can expect in the World Cup but it is another great opportunity to play international cricket against what is a very strong opposition. Any time you get opportunities to have those experiences it&#8217;s always good,&#8221; Williamson said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The deflating ODI loss behind him, New Zealand captain Kane Williamson Tuesday said he is excited about the prospect of testing unheralded players against a &#8220;top&#8221; team like India in the T20 series starting Wednesday.New Zealand have drafted in two debutants &#8212; all-rounder Daryl Mitchell and right-arm pacer Blair Tickner &#8212; in the T20 squad besides all-rounder Scott Kuggeleijen, who has played just one T20 and wicketkeeper Tim Seifert (8 T20s). The Kiwis lost the five-match ODI series 1-4.Williamson said with Martin Guptill ruled out due to a back injury,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20542,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20551"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20551"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20553,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20551\/revisions\/20553"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}