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Cricket PlayersShubman Gill stuns Rohit Sharma with awkward India vs New Zealand World Cup trivia, IND captain 'guarantees nothing'
Rohit Sharma 'did not guarantee' that India will end their unwanted record against New Zealand in ICC events.
India may have made it four wins in four matches in the World Cup 2023, steamrolled quality oppositions such as Australia and Bangladesh to be placed second on the points table but the Men in Blue will be in for their sternest test thus far of the tournament when they take on table-toppers New Zealand in Dharamsala on Sunday. The Kiwis have been a bogey team for Team India in not just World Cups, but ICC events as a whole. India have not beaten New Zealand since the 2003 World Cup, with the BlackCaps setting an unprecedented 5-0 winning streak.
Just two days removed from a win over Bangladesh, India have little time to gear up for the contest and the absence of Hardik Pandya promises to make things a tad difficult. Buoyed by their unblemished record in the World Cup so far, captain Rohit Sharma faced an unexpected inquiry from Shubman Gill shortly after India's 7-wicket victory in Pune. The young Indian opener confronted his skipper with a query regarding India's unwanted record against New Zealand, which Rohit clearly wasn't ready for.
Gill: Someone asked me in the press conference that we haven't beaten New Zealand in an ICC tournament since 2003…
Rohit: That's true. But we are playing good cricket and that's all we can do from our end.
Gill: So, will we definitely end the streak on Sunday?
Rohit: See we don't play the kind of cricket where we guarantee anything. When we reach the ground, we'll have to do what we are doing as a team. We can't think too far ahead. Yes, we've not had the result in the past but… (before being interrupted by Gill with another question)
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It has indeed been a long wait. The last time India defeated New Zealand at an ICC event, MS Dhoni was yet to make his international debut, and Rohit and Virat Kohli were just entering teenage. More importantly, the last few matches against New Zealand have all ended in heartbreaks for India. At the 2019 World Cup, India lost to the Kiwis in the first semifinal by 18 runs, bringing their campaign and MS Dhoni's career to an end.
Two years later, India made it to the final of the inaugural World Test Championship, where again, New Zealand had the better of them. A few months later, India's T20 World Cup campaign technically ended following an 8-wicket drubbing. Even in India, New Zealand have had the edge. At the 2016 World T20, India's only other loss barring the semifinal defeat to West Indies, was at the hands of New Zealand, when Mitchell Santner's miserly 4/11 and Ish Sodhi's 3/18 bowled India out for 79 in their chase of 127.
All that however can come to a screeching halt Sunday. There cannot be a more opportune moment for India to break this wretched run of theirs than now. India's red-hot form positions them as the only team capable of challenging New Zealand's dominance and they will look up to Gill in particular to deliver the goods. 2023 has been Gill's year and call it coincidence of whatever, it was his stirring scores of 208 and 112 against New Zealand that triggered his scorching form this year. As the only two undefeated teams in the tournament, a clash between them is bound to end in one team's defeat.
