A Rohit Sharma century in the first match. A Shikhar Dhawan century in the second. Contributions from Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, MS Dhoni and KL Rahul over the two games. India’s batting, just like their bowling, is up and running already in the World Cup. It’s no wonder that they’re two in two, having defeated two tough sides in South Africa and Australia.
These are ominous signs, but if there’s one attack that can stop the batting powerhouses, it’s the one that India will face next in Trent Bridge, Nottingham: New Zealand.
Not too long ago, India won a five-match series convincingly by a 4-1 margin in New Zealand. It was a thrashing that made Kane Williamson say India ‘taught them a few lessons in our own conditions’. India were easily the far superior side.
But there were a couple of phases in that series that New Zealand would hope for a repeat of in their World Cup clash.
At Hamilton, New Zealand had India all out for just 92. India brushed that aside as a one-off, but New Zealand nearly did an encore in the very next match at Wellington when they had the visitors reeling at 18 for 4 before Ambati Rayudu and Vijay Shankar bailed them out.
