India face New Zealand in ‘virtual quarter-final’

"There's a good reason why we are playing on the field and not some bunch of spineless people on social media that have no courage to actually speak to any individual in person. Attacking someone over their religion is the most, I would say, pathetic thing that a human being can do. I don't even want to waste one minute of my life to give any attention to those people, and neither does Shami (Mohammed Shami), neither does anyone else in the team."

— Virat Kohli India Captain

India captain Virat Kohli will be facing the most defining test of his captaincy career as he expects his men to be the proverbial "phoenix rising from the ashes" when they take on a street-smart New Zealand in a 'do-or-die' ICC T20 World Cup Super-12 game today.

Having endured a nightmare last Sunday against Pakistan, a match that they would like to forget in a hurry, India have a lot of course correction to do against the Kiwis, more so in getting the roles assigned for the players right.

New Zealand are also smarting from their defeat by Pakistan and need a win against Kohli's "Men in Blue" to revive their campaign.

With Pakistan already on six points having played all their tough games (India, New Zealand and Afghanistan) in the first week of Super 12s, they are expected to steamroll Namibia and Scotland en route their expected top place finish in group 2.

This leaves both India and New Zealand in a virtual shoot-out position as whoever wins has a chance to finish on maximum eight points and grab the second place in the group. It won't be easy for India against a quality New Zealand, which will come hard at India. Tim Southee and Trent Boult, especially have been a nemesis for the Indians in big games.

Trent Boult has seen how Shaheen Afridi swung the ball to wreck India's top order at the Twenty20 World Cup and the New Zealand pace spearhead is plotting something similar in Sunday's crucial contest against Virat Kohli's men.

"The way Shaheen bowled the other night was, for a left-armer, I thought it was amazing," Boult told reporters on Saturday.

"There's quality batsmen in that Indian lineup and early wickets are definitely the focus for us as a bowling group. Hopefully, from my point of view, it swings around a little bit and I can mirror what Shaheen did the other night."

Kane Williamson's team will draw inspiration from their edge over India in global tournaments in recent years, having prevailed in the semi-finals of the 2019 ODI World Cup and the final of the inaugural World Test Championship in June this year.

However, their soft underbelly is batting where Kane Williamson is still not hundred per cent and Martin Guptill also had a foot injury. It's effective without being flamboyant, although, Devon Conway is a flashy batter.

And herein lies India's chance but for that, their bowlers need to implement the game plans perfectly, something they couldn't against Pakistan.

India have shown in recent times, at least, in Test arena that they can come back from brink with unforgettable performances but Kohli in his last assignment as T20 captain would like to change the script that always seemed to go awry at global events. More so, because another failure at a mega event could well mean that there will be aspersions cast on his abilities as a white ball skipper and the 50-over leadership will also come under the scanner. Kohli is a man, who loves it the tough way. He loves a good scrap and a situation where he envisages that the entire world (even if they are not) is out there to get him, conspiring against him and wants to see him fail.