New Zealand pacer Mitchell McClenaghan has called the ongoing T20I series between India and New Zealand as ‘meaningless’.
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Team India have taken a 2-0 lead in the series with new full time skipper Rohit Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid. The final match will be played at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. The match is a dead rubber as it will have no effect on the result of the tournament.
The 35-year-old pacer Mitchell McClenaghan has responded to an Indian fan on Twitter. The fan wrote: “New Zealand lost the series.”
McClenaghan stressed upon the fact that New Zealand toured India 72 hours after losing the finals of the ICC T20 World Cup in UAE against Australia. Meanwhile India are playing this series in home with a 10-day break. NZ had a very hectic schedule playing 3 games in 5 days.
McClenaghan replied: “Did they? You mean in a meaningless series 72 hours after a WC final defeat with 3 games in 5 days playing a team with 10 days rest in their home conditions?”
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New Zealand lost the finals against Australia on November 14 in Dubai. They played their first game against India on 17 November in Jaipur. They then played on 19 November in Ranchi. The Kiwis lost their first match by 7 wickets and the second match by 5 wickets.
New Zealand’s stand in captain Tim Southee also spoke about the same issue. He stated tight schedule as one of the main reasons of their back-to-back defeats against India.
After their second defeat against India, Tim Southee spoke about their loss in the post-match conference.
He said, “There was heavy dew throughout the whole night; there was dew already in the warm-ups. It played a factor for both sides; it did get a little bit worse as the game went on, but we knew it was going to be the case.”
He added: “I just don’t think we adapted to the surface as well as we could have. It’s tough; you can obviously train with a wet ball. We haven’t had a lot of training with the nature of this series being so close together, it’s just: play, travel day, play, travel day, play again. So, there’s not a lot of training, so I think the guys just have to find a way.”
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