Vadodara, Jan 9 (PTI) The relevance and context of ODI cricket has been questioned time and again but New Zealand batter Will Young on Friday pointed out that the format still has two “world events with so much wonderful history”.
On a breezy Friday noon, a new-look New Zealand side spent nearly three hours sweating it out ahead of the three-match ODI series to kickstart a long tour of the Indian subcontinent, which also includes a five-match T20I series followed by the T20 World Cup next month.
With a heavy dose of T20 cricket lined up — some of their players will also feature in the Indian Premier League — Young acknowledged that the three-match ODI series, starting here on Sunday, could be lost in the “greater context”.
“Especially with the T20 World Cup round the corner, it is easy to have the series lost in the greater context,” Young told the media here at the Baroda Cricket Association Stadium.
“(But) when you’re playing for your country, there should always be those two things (passion and motivation). It is a slightly different format from Test and T20 cricket, and these days you probably play a little bit less as well.” “But you’ve got to remember, there’s still two ICC world events — the Champions Trophy and the World Cup — which has had so much wonderful history over such a long time,” Young added.
Young, who was the Player of the Series when the Kiwis left India shellshocked with a 3-0 win in the Test series in 2024-25, admitted it was his best performance in the longest format.
“You’d have to put it right at the top, yeah,” he said.
Young said there will be no thought of avenging the loss to India in the final of the Champions Trophy as the Kiwis are not thinking on those lines.
“It’s a completely different challenge (than) that was the Champions Trophy, they were different sides so that’s behind us,” he said.
“It’s not even in our minds at all, we’re excited by a three-match bilateral series in one-day cricket and when the game starts,” he added.
New Zealand squad features some young talent across the department and Young said it’s up to the players to ensure they are delivering what they are required to.
“It is a slightly different team, but one thing the Black Caps group over the last few years has had to deal with is different personnel coming in and out,” he said.
“There’s franchise leagues, there’s personal matters that come up and it’s been awesome to see that the youngsters come into this group and excel and do well right from the word go.” “One thing we talk about is, putting into the bucket — a nice metaphor — what I mean by that is you’re putting in more than you’re taking out and that’s expected from everyone in this group, not just the senior players,” he added.
Young continued, “We’ll try and get around those young guys who haven’t had experience yet in these conditions and back them to the hilt, that’s the main thing is, (for) them to know they’ve got the backing of their teammates to go out and express themselves and have a great time.” Young said he was not surprised to see Indian superstars Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma back in their prime form.
“Kohli and Sharma are incredible players and they’ve been at the top of their game in world cricket for a long, long time. (They are the) players that I look up to, (along with) a lot of the other players in this Black Caps group, we’ve always looked up to too,” he said.
Young backed rookie Vellore-born leg-spinner Adithya Ashok to come good on his maiden tour of India.
“Adi has played a reasonable amount of domestic cricket at home (and) he’s an incredibly talented leg spin bowler,” Young said.
“He’s got all the tricks and he bowls at a really nice pace too, and he can extract a bit of bounce out of the surface it’s going to be really exciting to see how Adi goes in one-day cricket.” PTI DDV BS BS
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