New Zealand Cricket team was formerly known as Kiwis. But we know Kiwis cannot fly. The New Zealand men’s cricket team now goes by the name of Black Caps. The women’s team is White Ferns. Over the past few years’ black caps have played consistently well in all formats of cricket. They almost but won the ICC ODI World Cup 2019 at Lords, they are now current ICC test champion. They have not won T20 championship yet. But with several match winners in the team Black Cups is among the top favorites for winning the championship in 2021. 

Black caps are the fist in announcing the T20 world cup squad. Concurrently it announced teams for tour to Bangladesh and Pakistan. 

New Zealand World Cup Squad: 
Kane Williamson (c), Todd Astle, Trent Boult, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Martin Guptill, Kyle Jamieson, Daryl Mitchell, Jimmy Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Tim Seifert (WK), Ish Sodhi and Tim Southee

We will preview the opportunities and potential of the team, but before that let us have a birds eye view about New Zealand. 

New Zealand: 
We know that New Zealand is a heavenly Island country in the South Western Pacific Ocean. It comprises of two landmasses – the north islands and south islands and more than 700 smaller islands. It is situated at 2000 kilometers east of Australia across the Tasman sea and 1000 kilometers south of Islands of New Caledonia, Fiji and Tonga. As a developed country New Zealand ranks very high in international comparison of national performances such as quality of life, education, protection of civil liberty, government transparency and economic freedom. The capital is Wellington. Other cities are Auckland, Christchurch, Hamilton, Dunedin and Dunedin. The country has a population of only about 5 million. It is predominantly a urban country with about 85% of the population living in urban areas. 
Rugby Union is considered the national sports. New Zealand rugby team All Blacks is admired and adored all over rugby world. All blacks won Rugby World Cup 3 times. Cricket, Golf, Tennis, Soccer and Netball are also popular sports. 

New Zealand Cricket:  New Zealand is always considered to be a very competitive cricket team that produced many top quality international cricketers over the years. Christchurch is the headquarter of New Zealand Cricket (NZC). Martin Sneeden is the Chairman, Debbie Hockley is the president and David White is the current CEO. Ken Williamson is the captain of the Black Caps. Garry Stead is the coach. The major domestic tournaments are Plunket Shield first class competition, the Ford Domestic ODI competition and the Super Smash domestic T20 competition. The domestic teams are Auckland Aces, Canterbury Kings, Central Stags, Nights for T20s (Northern Districts), Otago Volts and Wellington Firebirds. 

Playing in New Zealand condition is always a huge challenge for all international teams including Australia for the nature of the wicket, climate and strong wind. 

Major cricket grounds: 
A nation of only 5 million has over 2 dozens playgrounds where quality cricket facilities are available. 

10 major grounds where international cricket is played: 

Prospects of New Zealand In ICC T20 World Cup 2021: 

To Bangladeshis it goes without saying that the depth, diversity and strength of New Zealand is well known to them. They will also soon realize how competitive a lesser strength Black Caps unit can be. In international tournament on fair wickets and quality umpiring the present New Zealand team would be highly competitive with their razor sharp fielding, top quality aggressive and balanced bowling attack and quality power hitters. New Zealand is placed in Group 2 alongside India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, possibly Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. India and Pakistan are two fancied teams in the group. Bangladesh and Afghanistan can spring some surprise. It will be very difficult predicting which two teams emerge from the group of death. But with power hitters like Martin Guptil, Devon Conway, Glen Philips , Jimmy Nisham at disposal and spearheaded by ice cool Kane Williamson black caps can be a difficult customer. They have a very potent pace attack in Southe, Boult, Ferguson, and Jamieson. Todd Astol, Ish Sodhi may also prove effective. However, the calmness of Ross Taylor and flamboyance of Colin de Grandhomme may be missed. 

My money is on Black Caps progressing to Semi Final and beyond that is always a gamble in T20 cricket. 

BDST: 1630 HRS, AUG 23, 2021
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