MUMBAI: Daryl Mitchell has hit seven hundreds in 56 ODIs. However, no century is more special than his 134 off 119 balls against India in Mumbai in the 2023 ODI World Cup semifinal, a knock that almost enabled New Zealand to chase down 397 before they fell short by 70 runs.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!A fine player of spin, Mitchell will draw from his experience of playing in the subcontinent when handling spinners.“It’s a great challenge when you come into these parts. As a New Zealander, you don’t grow up on surfaces like this. I’ll be able to draw on my experiences from the last few years and take in the positives, such as the ODI World Cup in 2023,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell made it clear that New Zealand are not dwelling too much on the forthcoming T20 World Cup and are focused on the current ODI and T20I series.“We’ll look at the T20 World Cup in a month’s time. For now we’ll worry about playing an ODI series against India. A really key value for us is being where our feet are and that means being in the present and what the challenge is at that moment.”
‘IPL absolute carrot, but India experience invaluable’Meanwhile, New Zealand batter Henry Nicholls has asserted that playing against India in their backyard will be a like a “carrot” for the youngsters, especially with the IPL a couple of months away, and the prospect of being picked as a replacement player always there.“I’m sure there’ll be an absolute carrot, but again, the interest when you play over here… certainly from the fans, but also around the world, that’s what you want to test yourself against is the best team in their own conditions and that sort of the challenge we have in front of us. There’s not many places around the world that have the same excitement and passion that the fans here do. We’ve got some fresh guys in the squad who haven’t experienced it,” he said.