T20 World Cup 2022: Don’t count New Zealand out – Wasim Jaffer backs Kiwis to be front contenders

Former Indian opener Wasim Jaffer feels New Zealand can not be counted out of the T20 World Cup as the Kiwis have always punched above their weight. The Blackcaps have got off to a perfect start as they are currently at the top of Group 1 in the Super 12 stage of the ongoing T20I showpiece after winning two matches.

The Kane Williamson-led won their first match against the home team, Australia by a gargantuan margin of 89 runs. Subsequently, their second game against Afghanistan was abandoned without a ball being bowled as rain gods played a killjoy.

New Zealand then bagged another big win against Sri Lanka as they won by 65 runs and they have put one foot in the semifinal doors.

Jaffer reckons New Zealand has a lot of match-winners and they are always a dangerous team in ICC events. Devon Conway and Finn Allen did a fine job against Australia whereas Glenn Phillips scored a fine hundred against Sri Lanka.

“New Zealand, as we all know, they turn it up in ICC events. So, you don’t count them out. They put their names out there. They are likely to go through to the semi-finals, which they always do in ICC events and they have the ingredients. They have got the batters, and they have got multiple match-winners. In the last game, we saw Finn Allen and Devon Conway do well and in this game, we have Glenn Phillips and Trent Boult. So, they have got multiple match-winners. So, that’s going to be dangerous for the teams they are going to play (against),” said the former cricketer on ‘BatBricks7 presents Run Ki Runneeti show on CricTracker’.

On the other hand, Mitchell Santner has done a fine job for the Kiwis. The left-arm orthodox spinner scalped two wickets against the Island country and also added the finishing touches with a 5-ball 11.

“Santner is a great cricketer. I mean, he’s not just a left-arm spinner. He’s tall, so he makes it hard. It’s not really easy to play him and he’s got great numbers against left-handed batters. For a left-arm spinner, it’s not really easy and he bowls really well to left-handers and he’s a very good lower-order batsman. He has won them games on his batting. So, even after the top bowlers like Boult and Southee and Lockie Ferguson, they have got really good spinners like Ish Sodhi and Mitchell Santner, which makes up for a really strong attack,” Jaffer said on the same show.