The good news is that I will be definitely playing the second ODI at Jaipur. About Brendon (McCullum) we are not sure as yet. We will take a call on Wednesday morning. Brendon is also a keeper in the ODIs so it becomes that much more difficult to arrive at a decision. But I am pretty hopeful that he will play in the second ODI.
The sad news is that Daryl (Tuffey) has left us to go home with an injury. He has been such an integral part of our team in ODIs that it is going to be tough for us without him. But this is again an opportunity for another player to step up and take his place.
The last game was a disappointment because we lost too many wickets in the middle overs and lost the initiative. We knew that the light goes pretty soon in Guwahati and had planned well for it.
But we lost too many wickets and that was the disappointing aspect of our batting.
Luckily we had a few positives in Andy McKay and Ross Taylor who did well with the ball and bat. Then you had the likes of Nathan McCullum and Kyle Mills who used the long handle to good effect towards the end. Hopefully we can build on those positives and do well in the second match.
We have now lost seven ODIs in a row. It is obviously frustrating for us as a team. But we are looking at each game separately and are hopeful of snapping the losing streak.
We trained at the Jaipur ground and it is another beautiful facility. This is the first time for us and it looks very good. I have heard a lot about the dew factor at this ground. We will be going over again in the evening to check the dew factor and then plan accordingly.
The key would be to win the toss in such cases. Different countries have different techniques to counter dew.
Some start games very early. But the moot point is that we need to ensure that it is a fair contest between bat and ball. The dew should not affect the contest at all.
The bigger challenge for us is to ensure that the seven-match losing streak does not impact our minds that much. Just two-and-a-half three months ago we were the number two team in the world.
But it has been tough since then for us
Hopefully Wednesday’s game will change all that and we can start our World Cup campaign on a high.
The best way to prepare for such a mega event is by winning consistently and carrying the confidence through.
Hopefully the game at Jaipur will bring us good tidings.