Teams Status
New Zealand
New Zealand have been dealt a blow ahead of the series opener, with batter Mark Chapman being ruled out of the entire series after contracting the coronavirus.
In his place, George Worker has been brought back after four years away from the national fold.
While this seems like an easy home series where the bigger unit – New Zealand – may not have much to gain but Kiwi captain Tom Latham insists it could still prove useful to the hosts.
With several of New Zealand first-choice players out playing IPL, it provides them with the opportunity to test out fringe players and newbies.
“It’s a really beneficial series for them but also for us and building the depth of our side,” Latham recently said, clearly indicating what he intends to do in this series.
Netherlands
The stop-start rain in Napier on Friday robbed the Dutch with the chance to acclimatize themselves somewhat with local conditions ahead of this series. Their tour match with New Zealand XI was also abandoned in similar fashion four days earlier.
Before those pair of cancellations they did manage to pay two other tour matches but had lost both, which goes to show the gulf in the cricketing quality of both the nations.
This will be Netherlands’ first ODI clash with New Zealand after a gap of a quarter of a century. Thus, they would have needed all the help and adjustments available.
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