Auckland [New Zealand], Feb 7 : Ahead of the second ODI against India, Kiwi batsman Martin Guptill on Friday expressed his desire to play the 2023 World Cup.
He said that he is hopeful of coming up with good performances to make it to the squad for the 50-over tournament in India in 2023.
“Absolutely, pending body issues and form and things like that, hopefully, I can stick around and put enough numbers on the board to be in that squad,” Guptill told reporters ahead of the second ODI.
“The focus last year was because of the World Cup and there’s a lot of T20 cricket leading into the T20 World Cup this year. I don’t think one-day cricket is going anywhere, there’s still a World Cup to play for in three years’ time, and leading up to that there’s going to be a lot of ODI cricket,” he added.
In the first ODI, Ross Taylor and Tom Latham allowed New Zealand to record their highest run-chase in ODI cricket after chasing 348 runs against India at Hamilton.
“It was a great chase the other night, it was our highest ever. The way we came out and started, we really set the innings up. The match-winning partnership came from Ross and Tom, they gave the innings, much-needed impetus,” Guptill said.
“We want to be as positive as possible. Once we get out there tomorrow, we will see how we go. If being positive means you losing two wickets early, so be it. My role does not change in the team, my role is to provide the team a quick start,” he added.
The 33-year-old said that playing the Indian spinners in Kiwi conditions is a little easier as the ball does not spin much. He also said that one gets adjusted to facing Jasprit Bumrah with time.
“It is a completely different situation. You can be a little more attacking here as the ball is not going to spin much. We can take confidence in how we played the spinners from the first match,” Guptill said.
“You definitely get used to him with time, he has a unique action. We played him (Bumrah) well in the first match. We negated him from taking early wickets,” he added.
New Zealand and India will next lock horns in the second ODI on Saturday, February 8.
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