New Zealand will be up against Australia in the first of the three-match T20I series. This article provides details about New Zealand’s Playing 11 vs Australia for the first match of the series.
New Zealand Playing XI vs Australia- 1st T20I, Australia Tour of New Zealand 2025:
Openers: Devon Conway, Tim Seifert (wk)
The home team for the upcoming series between New Zealand and Australia would like to get off to a winning start by registering a win in the first match of the series.
For that to happen, the Kiwis would bank on its batters to come good because the team’s bowling lacks experience.
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The likes of Devon Conway, Tim Seifert, and Rachin Ravindra will have to score the bulk of the runs for the team and put the opposition under pressure.
Looking at the form of Australia’s batting lineup, the Blackcaps will have to target a score of more than 200 runs consistently.
Due to that reason, the responsibility will be on the opening pair of Devon Conway and Tim Seifert to get the team off to a good start in the first six overs.
The duo would also want the middle-order batters to capitalize on the platform laid by them to increase their team’s chances of crossing the 200-run mark.
Middle-order batsmen and all-rounders: Daryl Mitchell, Rachin Ravindra, Tim Robinson, Michael Bracewell (c), Kyle Jamieson
The opening duo will be followed by a middle order that includes experienced batters like Daryl Mitchell, Rachin Ravindra, and New Zealand’s captain for this particular series, Michael Bracewell.
Despite the experience of the biggest concern for the home side as far as the batting department is concerned is the lack of depth in it.
Although the Kiwis have a lot of batters who can bowl like Rachin Ravindra and Daryl Mitchell, along with two all-rounders, Michael Bracewell and Kyle Jamison, the story is a bit different when the tables are turned.
The lack of depth in the batting lineup might hurt the BlackCaps as the series progresses, given that the opponent has a lot of options in both batting and bowling sides of things, which is why the top five batters of the home side will have to come to the party.
Bowlers: Jacob Duffy, Matt Henry, Ish Sodhi, Ben Sears
As mentioned above, unlike the Blackcaps’ batting, the team’s bowling has a lot of options to choose from.
However, a major problem with the Kiwi bowling is the experience of a lack of it with the likes of Tim Southee and Trent Boult not a part of the team anymore.
The Kiwi captain would bank on Matt Henry, Jacob Duffy, and Ben Sears to get early breakthroughs for New Zealand, along with Kyle Jamieson, for them to have any chance of restricting an in-form batting lineup that Australia possesses.
As far as the team’s spin bowling is concerned, it will be handled by Ish Sodhi and captain Michael Bracewell.
The team would also want Rachin Ravindra and Daryl Mitchell to chip in with an over or two if needed.
