New Zealand captain Tom Latham previews ICC Cricket World Cup opener against England. The tournament held in India starts on Thursday, England are defending champions after defeating New Zealand in the 2019 final
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00:00 Hello Tom, long time no see.
00:07 About to kick off this World Cup here, how excited are you now, one day away from beginning
00:13 to get your campaign underway?
00:14 Yeah, it's extremely exciting.
00:16 I think you look at a World Cup and it's always on the horizon, it's always years away and
00:21 then I guess to finally be here is really exciting.
00:24 We've obviously had a nice build up with a few practice games like obviously everyone
00:30 has, but to obviously play the opening game here at an amazing stadium is pretty special.
00:36 So it's a unique one being played here in India.
00:39 It's obviously a fantastic place to play cricket and really excited to get underway tomorrow.
00:45 Obviously a lot of talk about the fact that it's the same two teams who played the last
00:50 match of the previous World Cup.
00:52 Does that have any bearing whatsoever on this game going forward?
00:55 I know you know each other very well having just played in England, but there's going
00:59 to be I think seven of your team, possibly seven of England's team from that final, so
01:05 quite a familiar face.
01:06 Yeah, absolutely.
01:07 As you said, we've played England a lot in a few formats over the last couple of years
01:14 and it's a question that always pops up, but I think from our point of view we're sorely
01:19 focused on the job at hand tomorrow.
01:23 We've had time to certainly reflect on what a fantastic game it was four years ago and
01:29 I'm sure everyone will say it's probably one of the greatest games of cricket to be played.
01:34 So from our point of view, we've parked that and we're really looking forward to what the
01:40 challenges present tomorrow.
01:41 To play a fantastic England side in a World Cup opener is really special, so you can't
01:47 get much better than that.
01:49 As a final one from me, no Kane Williamson tomorrow.
01:53 How much of a blow, how much of a miss is that for you?
01:55 I know you've played a lot of cricket without him recently, but still you're squad captain
02:00 and the guy I guess that you rely on most of all.
02:03 Yeah, I guess any team that doesn't have Kane in it is obviously, we'd certainly be better
02:08 off having him, but I think from our point of view for him to be here, to be at the World
02:13 Cup is a testament to I think the work that he's put in over the last four to five months
02:18 to be where he is.
02:20 I think it's nearly six months post-surgery and for him to be given a shot, to be given
02:26 a chance to play in the World Cup at some point is really a testament to the work that
02:31 he's put in.
02:32 So for him it's a day-by-day process in terms of where his recovery's at.
02:36 He's obviously played a little bit of part of the last two warm-up games.
02:40 He's been batting beautifully, which is great to see and he was out in the field a couple
02:44 of days ago.
02:45 So he's progressing really nicely and fingers crossed he's on the park sooner rather than
02:50 later.
02:51 Mel?
02:52 Tom, it wouldn't be the build-up to a World Cup if there weren't a lot of predictions
02:57 running around, a lot of them evidently meaningless in terms of what you do.
03:02 But I've noticed a lot of people predicting automatically for the semi-finals England,
03:08 Australia, India and then maybe a mix of maybe Pakistan, maybe South Africa, maybe New Zealand.
03:15 Despite the fact that you were finalists last year and had a pretty good run in ODIs.
03:20 Does that suit you and why do you think that is?
03:24 Yeah I think from our point of view, I'm sure like most teams, we're not necessarily focused
03:29 on what people are predicting.
03:32 From our point of view we're solely focused on what we have to do.
03:36 The brand of cricket that we want to play at this World Cup is our main focus and when
03:43 it comes towards the end of the tournament, if we're in those positions then that's great.
03:48 But if we can play our brand of cricket in these conditions, which is obviously completely
03:52 different to the last two ODI World Cups being in Australia and England.
03:56 So we just want to come here and play some good cricket, play our brand of cricket and
04:03 if we do that then we know we'll give ourselves a good chance of being there in the back end
04:08 of the tournament.
04:09 So that's solely focused on what we're doing.
04:13 Why do you think that is though, considering you made the last two World Cup finals and
04:18 yet you still have that kind of underdog tackle?
04:22 Yeah I'm not too sure, that's probably something for you guys to decide but as I said we don't
04:28 necessarily focus on that.
04:30 We just tend to, I guess Kiwis fly under the radar a little bit and go about our business
04:35 in the way that we want to and every team has a different brand that they like to play,
04:40 a style that they like to play and we have ours so we know if we do that and we play
04:46 to the best of our ability then we are hard to beat on the day.
04:50 And I guess that's something about these tournaments where you play everyone once, it's about
04:54 turning up on that specific day and trying to play your best brand of cricket and if
04:58 you can do that then teams will give themselves a good chance at the back end of the game.
05:02 So for us if we can do that then we'll know we'll give ourselves a good chance.
05:06 Tom is it fair to assume that Daryl Mitchell's role is something similar to Grant Elliot,
05:16 what he did in the past, the kind of a finisher that Mitchell is and also bowling medium pieces,
05:21 taking wickets, staying not out and connecting that top and the lower order?
05:28 Yeah Daryl is someone for us that's been fantastic over the last sort of 18 months to 2 years
05:36 from where he's come, he's come on leaps and bounds from when he's played international
05:40 cricket and I think the opportunities that he's been given at the top of the order or
05:45 towards the top of the order, he's certainly taken those opportunities and certainly one
05:50 day cricket he's been fantastic in terms of batting through and putting some big numbers
05:57 on the board so I think from his point of view he goes out there and plays his style
06:02 and I think the good thing about Daryl is he's adaptable to every situation, he can
06:08 knuckle down if he needs to and he can obviously play an expansive brand of cricket as well
06:13 if he needs to so I think that's the beauty about him, he's able to play in every situation
06:19 and I'm sure he'll be looking forward to doing that over the next sort of 6 weeks or so.
06:26 How is it to start off in front of the world's biggest stadium, how much of an impact is
06:32 that?
06:33 Yeah it's an amazing opportunity, I've just arrived at this grounds, first time I've been
06:38 here and it's walking across the ground, it's pretty special, talking to some of the guys
06:43 that have played the IPL games here, they've certainly said it's an amazing place to play
06:48 cricket especially in front of a packed house so we're really excited to play the opening
06:54 game of the World Cup here against a quality opposition and I think from our point of view
07:00 it's, as I said earlier, the World Cup always seems a long way away but for it to finally
07:05 be here is really cool.
07:07 What's the tag you would like, duck horses or favourites or what exactly?
07:15 No tags from us, as I said earlier for us it's about trying to play our brand of cricket
07:20 as best we can, we've got a mix of experience and a mix of youth, we've got some guys playing
07:26 in their 4th World Cup, some guys playing in their first so for us it's about trying
07:31 to play our brand of cricket as best we can and if we can do that then hopefully give
07:35 ourselves a good chance at the back end of the tournament.
07:37 Hi Tom, England play a certain brand of cricket which is now famous the world over irrespective
07:45 of format so a team that bats so deep to number 9 and I guess we can all agree they're going
07:50 to be fantastic batting conditions, how do you front up to a challenge like that, a team
07:54 that bats to number 9 and just keeps coming at you?
07:59 I think we're lucky enough, we played England just a couple of weeks ago in a series back
08:04 home and we've certainly seen in that series and obviously watching series beforehand that
08:09 they are a team that do come hard, they've got some quality players in that side and
08:15 I think from our point of view it's trying to play as best you can in terms of our scouting
08:20 and in terms of areas that we want to bowl and we want to put pressure on so I guess
08:26 from our point of view it's trying to apply as much pressure as we can and if we can do
08:30 that and we can make some early inroads then that would be great but as I said from our
08:36 point of view we know they're going to keep coming hard which also presents us with opportunities
08:41 so we'll have to wait and see what conditions are going to be like, I'm sure throughout
08:45 the tournament they will change, they might change from the day time to evening time so
08:51 it's just about trying to be adaptable to conditions and also adaptable to each team
08:56 that we come up against.
08:57 Hi Tom, I was going to ask about that recent series in England actually, does a 3-1 have
09:03 any impact going into this game and were there any chinks in the English armour that you
09:08 spotted that you might be able to exploit out here?
09:11 I don't think it has any bearing on the next game, I think as I said earlier it's about
09:17 turning up on that specific day and trying to play your best brand of cricket and we
09:23 know if we do that and we play to the best of our ability then we can beat anyone in
09:29 the world so it's going to be a great opportunity tomorrow for us to come up against one of
09:35 the best teams in the world at the moment, conditions are completely different to what
09:40 we played over in England so again it's about being adaptable to them as much as we can
09:45 but I'm sure like most teams they'll be really looking forward to getting into the
09:50 tournament and getting started and we're no different.
09:53 Tom, lots of doubts emerging about the future of the one day game as we head into this World
09:58 Cup, as a player and as a team how much do you guys enjoy playing this format or do you
10:03 feel that this format needs reinvention or some kind of...
10:07 Yeah I think from my point of view from I'm sure a lot of our guys regardless of what
10:12 format they love playing for New Zealand, what the future holds of one day cricket I
10:17 guess that's certainly out of our hands but yeah I guess for me the more cricket we can
10:23 play the better, playing in a World Cup in these sort of conditions over in India is
10:30 pretty special and I'm sure we're going to see some fantastic cricket over the next
10:33 sort of six to eight weeks so fingers crossed there's plenty of one day cricket coming up
10:39 in the future but from our point of view all we can do is I guess try entertain from a
10:46 cricket point of view and if we can do that and put a good showcase on for the people
10:52 around the world then hopefully it's here to stay.
10:57 So I should have asked this right from the start, have you got a team for us for tomorrow?
11:01 Not a team, we've obviously just arrived at the moment so, or guys are just arriving so
11:05 we'll have a look at the surface when we get out there and then we'll be able to make some
11:09 decisions on what that looks like.
11:11 We know about Kane, is there anything about Tim as well, is he definitely...
11:15 Yeah so obviously no Kane and Tim's, yeah no Tim as well, he's unavailable for selection
11:20 just in terms of what happened to his thumb a couple of weeks ago but he's recovering
11:25 nicely I think he's nearly two weeks post surgery so fingers crossed, you know he can
11:30 keep recovering and it's a bit of a day by day process with him in terms of what that
11:34 looks like too but fingers crossed he'll be available sooner rather than later as well.
11:40 Thanks guys.
11:40 - Thank you.
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