Dubai [UAE], March 1 : Glenn Phillips assured that New Zealand remains unaffected by travelling from Pakistan to Dubai and India, playing all its matches at the same venue. He went on to lay out their plan to counterattack India's spin threat in Dubai in their upcoming fixture on Sunday.
India has drawn criticism for playing all their match at the same venue in Dubai while the rest of the teams have been travelling to different venues across Pakistan.
Former England cricketers Nasser Hussain and Michael Atherton were quite vocal about India playing all its games in Dubai, a factor that hands them an edge over the other teams.
Phillips claimed that the Blackcaps are undaunted by playing their matches across different venues ahead of the final group-stage match against India on Sunday.
"No, for us, there's no focus on anything like that. Obviously, a tournament draw is what it is, and we have a no-excuses mindset to be able to come out to a tournament; you're dealt the hand that you're dealt, and the fact of the matter is India has been dealt that hand, and we've been dealt that hand. And we're never going to complain about what we get, and we'll just do the best with what we've got," he told reporters during the pre-match press conference.
The past results have been favourable for New Zealand against India. The Kiwis staged a historic 3-0 Test series win in India last year and negated the spin threat throughout the three-match affair.
"I think in Test cricket, it definitely was. When it came to situations, we were playing on pitches that were turning significantly to be able to, I guess, score runs. It was more of a runs game as opposed to a matter of time. There are other countries that you can potentially outlast teams, but in that situation, that series we played, it was very much around runs in a quick fashion, and hopefully enough of them was going to be the case. I think in white ball cricket, it does change a little bit. With there obviously only being 50 overs, the game plans slightly change to be able to counteract situations of the game," he said.
One of the key reasons behind India's success comes down to the impact made by spinners. Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav have dealt crucial breakthroughs and kept a lid on the opposition's scoring rate during the middle phase of the inning.
According to Phillips, the key to overcoming India's spin attack lies in rotation of strike, especially during the middle overs, and taking the game deep to offer themselves a chance.
"The middle phase is obviously very crucial. And the way Tom Latham and Will Young did it against Pakistan. And then obviously, Tom and Rachin in the last game against Bangladesh during a tricky period was fantastic, and I think that's probably crucial going into this one with the quality of the Indian spinners is going to be about how can we rotate strike, how can we take the game deep and be able to give ourselves a chance to, I guess, launch an attack at the death," he said.
"If we do that, first put a competitive score on the board. And obviously, if we're chasing, that becomes really crucial to limit those dot balls in the middle overs with how good their spinners are. Obviously, it's not an easy task; they are fantastic spinners, but we've all got our individual plans, and hopefully, we can go out there and execute them," he added.