rajkot: New Zealand batter Henry Nicholls on Tuesday said having a limited amount of One-day cricket between global events makes the series such as the ongoing one against India “more important than ever”.
While the next 50-over World Cup being still 22 months away, questions on the relevance of the format and context of the ongoing series have resurfaced as focus primarily remains on next month’s T20 World Cup. “Like you say there’s not as much one-day cricket between major events, I think that makes these series even more important,” Nicholls told the media ahead of New Zealand’s training session here at the Niranjan Shah Stadium.
“A few of us have been playing some List-A cricket back home, so we have got a bit of the format under our belt. But it’s a format that we enjoy playing so when you have those series now, they are more important than ever with limited amount,” he added.
Nicholls said New Zealand will have to keep doing the right things for longer durations after they lost the opening ODI by four wickets despite coming close. “From a batting point of view, we did a lot of things pretty well and it’s a case of us being able to do them for a bit longer. Devon and I (had a) partnership at the top, if one of us is able to bat for an extended period of time…”“That’s always the case of one-day cricket, if you’re able to have wickets in hand, have a set batter in through to the last 15 (or) 10 overs then it certainly extends your death (overs).”