"Not my decision to make": Daryl Mitchell on increasing 15-player squad cap in World Cup
Nov 03, 2023
Karnataka (Bengaluru) [India], November 3 : New Zealand batter Daryl Mitchell held back from giving his views on whether the 15-player cap in the World Cup should be increased as the number of players on the Kiwis injury list continues to pile up.
New Zealand's downfall in the past three games has been influenced by the lack of star players available in their 15-player squad.
Star batter Kane Williamson continues to nurse his broken hands while Matt Henry was ruled out of the World Cup due to a torn right hamstring. His replacement Kyle Jamieson arrived but there are still doubts about whether he will feature in the playing XI or not. Along with this all-rounder Jimmy Neesham and pacer Lockie Ferguson are also injured.
With the number of injuries piling up, Mitchell was quizzed about whether the squad size should be increased or not.
"Yeah, look, for us, again, that's not my decision to make. That's for the bosses above to make those decisions. For us, we're stoked to be playing in the World Cup and to be representing our country. And whether the next one has more players, less players, more games, less games, that's not for me to decide. But us as players are really proud to represent our country and I know that everyone within the squad is looking forward to tomorrow," Mitchell said in the pre-match press conference ahead of the Pakistan clash.
New Zealand won four consecutive matches and then went on to lose three on the bounce. They still haven't met the criteria for qualification for the semi-finals but with a victory, they will take a step closer towards it.
Mitchell talked about how hard it is to bounce back after suffering consecutive defeats and said, "One thing we do as Kiwis is we stay pretty grounded. We stay where our feet are, and injuries are things that we can't control. All I know is that the 11 guys that will take the field tomorrow will be very proud to represent our country and get stuck in a World Cup. And yeah, we won't, as I said earlier, we won't make it bigger than what it is. It's another two points for this tournament, which is important for us in the big scheme of things, but we'll just keep playing like Black Caps and Kiwis do, and I'm sure we'll come a long way to winning the game."
In a do-or-die clash for Pakistan, they will face New Zealand at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday.
