Captain Daniel Vettori sounded wary of rushing the off-spinner, taken to hospital on Thursday with a high fever, into sharing the spin burden in the match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.
"Nathan got back from hospital and joined us this morning for a lighter session later in the day," Vettori said of his spin colleague in a news conference on Saturday.
"He is feeling a lot better but we might take a decision at the last minute. I'm reasonably confident he can take part in tomorrow's game.
"It all depends on Nathan's fitness but I think we definitely will play two spinners (against Kenya)."
New Zealand had a poor build-up leading to the World Cup, being whitewashed in series by Bangladesh and India before losing a home series against Pakistan.
"We acknowledge we lost a lot of games and there has been some disappointing performances, particularly in the subcontinent.
"But the World Cup is a fresh start, If we play well tomorrow the guys can turn around their confidence pretty quickly."
While he and McCullum may have to shoulder the spin responsibility during the tournament, Vettori expects his pacers to do well after fine-tuning their craft under bowling coach Allan Donald's supervision.
"Allan has been an exciting addition to the team because he brings obviously his own skill and confidence. He speaks from a position of authority and the guys listen," Vettori, wearing spectacles and characteristic stubble, said of the former South African pacer.
"He knows what it takes to succeed in the subcontinent as well as other parts of the world."
Kenya, on the other hand, sounded confident of creating an upset.
"Nobody should take the associate teams lightly. At the end of the day, the result will show. We just need to go out and express ourselves," Kenya skipper Jimmy Kamande said.
No comments:
Post a Comment