Munro: ‘Bhuvi, Bumrah the best new ball bowlers’

The dashing New Zealand batsman, who smashed a half-century in the third ODI, rated the Indian speedsters highly and revealed how Brendon McCullum’s text message worked wonders for him.

Though Bhuvneshwar Kumar (L) proved expensive in third and final ODI against New Zealand, he picked up the important wicket of Henry Nicholls; Bumrah finished with figures of 3/47.

 

New Zealand’s dashing batsman Colin Munro on Tuesday called the Indian pace duo of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah the “best” new ball bowlers in the sub-continent conditions.

Munro — who scored a fluent half-century in the third and final ODI against India in Kanpur on Sunday — is aware that his aggressive approach would not always get him runs.

Read: Williamson, Latham and the warmth of Kiwis

“The big challenge for me was just actually finding a good tempo to bat at. I’d like to say that I want to go and blast off in the first 10 overs but it’s not always going to be the case, especially when you are playing against Bhuvi and Bumrah, the two best opening bowlers in these conditions,” Munro said on the eve of the first T20I against India.

New Zealand lost the three-match ODI series against India 1-2 but it will look to win the T20I series as it is the number one team in the world in the shortest format and has never lost a game against India.

New Zealand have a 100 percent record against India in this format, winning all its five matches so far.

“We have been lucky enough for the last couple of years to be successful. Looking forward to the series and it should be a good one,” Munro said.

He added, “I play aggressively, my way sometimes it comes off and you look good, sometimes it doesn’t and you don’t look good. Obviously, there is plenty to play for and we have got a good record against India. Hopefully, we will get off to a good start.”

Mitchell McClenaghan and Luke Ronchi are out with injuries and their absence did hurt the team.

“Their absence has been felt but (Tom) Latham has done really well this season. We have got an experienced bowling attack,” said Munro.

Ross Taylor’s impressive showing in ODIs have earned him a recall to the New Zealand T20I side and asked if the senior player is a certainty in the playing XI tomorrow, Munro said he was not sure.

Taylor has not played a T20I since New Zealand’s semifinal loss to England in the World T20 in 2016.

Munro got in touch with Brendon McCullum recently and the former New Zealand captain motivated him.

“It is a funny one, actually, because after the second game I wouldn’t say I was down but I hadn’t got off to a start I wanted to while opening the batting. So, I sent him a text message to ask him his thoughts and let him know what I was thinking,” said Munro.

“And again he came out and said ‘Mate, you know you got a good record in T20 and the way you play at the top of the order. If you can, try and implement that in the ODI game’”