00:00 Hello Tom, long time no see.
00:07 About to kick off this World Cup here, how excited are you now, one day away from beginning
00:13 to get your campaign underway?
00:14 Yeah, it's extremely exciting.
00:16 I think you look at a World Cup and it's always on the horizon, it's always years away and
00:21 then I guess to finally be here is really exciting.
00:24 We've obviously had a nice build up with a few practice games like obviously everyone
00:30 has, but to obviously play the opening game here at an amazing stadium is pretty special.
00:36 So it's a unique one being played here in India.
00:39 It's obviously a fantastic place to play cricket and really excited to get underway tomorrow.
00:45 Obviously a lot of talk about the fact that it's the same two teams who played the last
00:50 match of the previous World Cup.
00:52 Does that have any bearing whatsoever on this game going forward?
00:55 I know you know each other very well having just played in England, but there's going
00:59 to be I think seven of your team, possibly seven of England's team from that final, so
01:05 quite a familiar face.
01:06 Yeah, absolutely.
01:07 As you said, we've played England a lot in a few formats over the last couple of years
01:14 and it's a question that always pops up, but I think from our point of view we're sorely
01:19 focused on the job at hand tomorrow.
01:23 We've had time to certainly reflect on what a fantastic game it was four years ago and
01:29 I'm sure everyone will say it's probably one of the greatest games of cricket to be played.
01:34 So from our point of view, we've parked that and we're really looking forward to what the
01:40 challenges present tomorrow.
01:41 To play a fantastic England side in a World Cup opener is really special, so you can't
01:47 get much better than that.
01:49 As a final one from me, no Kane Williamson tomorrow.
01:53 How much of a blow, how much of a miss is that for you?
01:55 I know you've played a lot of cricket without him recently, but still you're squad captain
02:00 and the guy I guess that you rely on most of all.
02:03 Yeah, I guess any team that doesn't have Kane in it is obviously, we'd certainly be better
02:08 off having him, but I think from our point of view for him to be here, to be at the World
02:13 Cup is a testament to I think the work that he's put in over the last four to five months
02:18 to be where he is.
02:20 I think it's nearly six months post-surgery and for him to be given a shot, to be given
02:26 a chance to play in the World Cup at some point is really a testament to the work that
02:31 he's put in.
02:32 So for him it's a day-by-day process in terms of where his recovery's at.
02:36 He's obviously played a little bit of part of the last two warm-up games.
02:40 He's been batting beautifully, which is great to see and he was out in the field a couple
02:44 of days ago.
02:45 So he's progressing really nicely and fingers crossed he's on the park sooner rather than
02:50 later.
02:51 Mel?
02:52 Tom, it wouldn't be the build-up to a World Cup if there weren't a lot of predictions
02:57 running around, a lot of them evidently meaningless in terms of what you do.
03:02 But I've noticed a lot of people predicting automatically for the semi-finals England,
03:08 Australia, India and then maybe a mix of maybe Pakistan, maybe South Africa, maybe New Zealand.
03:15 Despite the fact that you were finalists last year and had a pretty good run in ODIs.
03:20 Does that suit you and why do you think that is?
03:24 Yeah I think from our point of view, I'm sure like most teams, we're not necessarily focused
03:29 on what people are predicting.
03:32 From our point of view we're solely focused on what we have to do.
03:36 The brand of cricket that we want to play at this World Cup is our main focus and when
03:43 it comes towards the end of the tournament, if we're in those positions then that's great.
03:48 But if we can play our brand of cricket in these conditions, which is obviously completely
03:52 different to the last two ODI World Cups being in Australia and England.
03:56 So we just want to come here and play some good cricket, play our brand of cricket and
04:03 if we do that then we know we'll give ourselves a good chance of being there in the back end
04:08 of the tournament.
04:09 So that's solely focused on what we're doing.
04:13 Why do you think that is though, considering you made the last two World Cup finals and
04:18 yet you still have that kind of underdog tackle?
04:22 Yeah I'm not too sure, that's probably something for you guys to decide but as I said we don't
04:28 necessarily focus on that.
04:30 We just tend to, I guess Kiwis fly under the radar a little bit and go about our business
04:35 in the way that we want to and every team has a different brand that they like to play,
04:40 a style that they like to play and we have ours so we know if we do that and we play
04:46 to the best of our ability then we are hard to beat on the day.
04:50 And I guess that's something about these tournaments where you play everyone once, it's about
04:54 turning up on that specific day and trying to play your best brand of cricket and if
04:58 you can do that then teams will give themselves a good chance at the back end of the game.
05:02 So for us if we can do that then we'll know we'll give ourselves a good chance.
05:06 Tom is it fair to assume that Daryl Mitchell's role is something similar to Grant Elliot,
05:16 what he did in the past, the kind of a finisher that Mitchell is and also bowling medium pieces,
05:21 taking wickets, staying not out and connecting that top and the lower order?
05:28 Yeah Daryl is someone for us that's been fantastic over the last sort of 18 months to 2 years
05:36 from where he's come, he's come on leaps and bounds from when he's played international
05:40 cricket and I think the opportunities that he's been given at the top of the order or
05:45 towards the top of the order, he's certainly taken those opportunities and certainly one
05:50 day cricket he's been fantastic in terms of batting through and putting some big numbers
05:57 on the board so I think from his point of view he goes out there and plays his style
06:02 and I think the good thing about Daryl is he's adaptable to every situation, he can
06:08 knuckle down if he needs to and he can obviously play an expansive brand of cricket as well
06:13 if he needs to so I think that's the beauty about him, he's able to play in every situation
06:19 and I'm sure he'll be looking forward to doing that over the next sort of 6 weeks or so.
06:26 How is it to start off in front of the world's biggest stadium, how much of an impact is
06:32 that?
06:33 Yeah it's an amazing opportunity, I've just arrived at this grounds, first time I've been
06:38 here and it's walking across the ground, it's pretty special, talking to some of the guys
06:43 that have played the IPL games here, they've certainly said it's an amazing place to play
06:48 cricket especially in front of a packed house so we're really excited to play the opening
06:54 game of the World Cup here against a quality opposition and I think from our point of view
07:00 it's, as I said earlier, the World Cup always seems a long way away but for it to finally
07:05 be here is really cool.
07:07 What's the tag you would like, duck horses or favourites or what exactly?
07:15 No tags from us, as I said earlier for us it's about trying to play our brand of cricket
07:20 as best we can, we've got a mix of experience and a mix of youth, we've got some guys playing
07:26 in their 4th World Cup, some guys playing in their first so for us it's about trying
07:31 to play our brand of cricket as best we can and if we can do that then hopefully give
07:35 ourselves a good chance at the back end of the tournament.
07:37 Hi Tom, England play a certain brand of cricket which is now famous the world over irrespective
07:45 of format so a team that bats so deep to number 9 and I guess we can all agree they're going
07:50 to be fantastic batting conditions, how do you front up to a challenge like that, a team
07:54 that bats to number 9 and just keeps coming at you?
07:59 I think we're lucky enough, we played England just a couple of weeks ago in a series back
08:04 home and we've certainly seen in that series and obviously watching series beforehand that
08:09 they are a team that do come hard, they've got some quality players in that side and
08:15 I think from our point of view it's trying to play as best you can in terms of our scouting
08:20 and in terms of areas that we want to bowl and we want to put pressure on so I guess
08:26 from our point of view it's trying to apply as much pressure as we can and if we can do
08:30 that and we can make some early inroads then that would be great but as I said from our
08:36 point of view we know they're going to keep coming hard which also presents us with opportunities
08:41 so we'll have to wait and see what conditions are going to be like, I'm sure throughout
08:45 the tournament they will change, they might change from the day time to evening time so
08:51 it's just about trying to be adaptable to conditions and also adaptable to each team
08:56 that we come up against.
08:57 Hi Tom, I was going to ask about that recent series in England actually, does a 3-1 have
09:03 any impact going into this game and were there any chinks in the English armour that you
09:08 spotted that you might be able to exploit out here?
09:11 I don't think it has any bearing on the next game, I think as I said earlier it's about
09:17 turning up on that specific day and trying to play your best brand of cricket and we
09:23 know if we do that and we play to the best of our ability then we can beat anyone in
09:29 the world so it's going to be a great opportunity tomorrow for us to come up against one of
09:35 the best teams in the world at the moment, conditions are completely different to what
09:40 we played over in England so again it's about being adaptable to them as much as we can
09:45 but I'm sure like most teams they'll be really looking forward to getting into the
09:50 tournament and getting started and we're no different.
09:53 Tom, lots of doubts emerging about the future of the one day game as we head into this World
09:58 Cup, as a player and as a team how much do you guys enjoy playing this format or do you
10:03 feel that this format needs reinvention or some kind of...
10:07 Yeah I think from my point of view from I'm sure a lot of our guys regardless of what
10:12 format they love playing for New Zealand, what the future holds of one day cricket I
10:17 guess that's certainly out of our hands but yeah I guess for me the more cricket we can
10:23 play the better, playing in a World Cup in these sort of conditions over in India is
10:30 pretty special and I'm sure we're going to see some fantastic cricket over the next
10:33 sort of six to eight weeks so fingers crossed there's plenty of one day cricket coming up
10:39 in the future but from our point of view all we can do is I guess try entertain from a
10:46 cricket point of view and if we can do that and put a good showcase on for the people
10:52 around the world then hopefully it's here to stay.
10:57 So I should have asked this right from the start, have you got a team for us for tomorrow?
11:01 Not a team, we've obviously just arrived at the moment so, or guys are just arriving so
11:05 we'll have a look at the surface when we get out there and then we'll be able to make some
11:09 decisions on what that looks like.
11:11 We know about Kane, is there anything about Tim as well, is he definitely...
11:15 Yeah so obviously no Kane and Tim's, yeah no Tim as well, he's unavailable for selection
11:20 just in terms of what happened to his thumb a couple of weeks ago but he's recovering
11:25 nicely I think he's nearly two weeks post surgery so fingers crossed, you know he can
11:30 keep recovering and it's a bit of a day by day process with him in terms of what that
11:34 looks like too but fingers crossed he'll be available sooner rather than later as well.
11:40 Thanks guys.
11:40 - Thank you.
11:41 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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