Daniel Vettori has been named as New Zealand’s Captain for the Twenty20 World Cup. Stephen Fleming who had resigned from the One Day Captaincy after the World Cup has been left out of the 15-man squad. Stephen Fleming is currently engaged captaining Nottinghamshire in English County.
The other notable exclusion in the New Zealand side is all rounder James Franklin making way for another left arm pacer in Bradley Scott. What was surprising was the inclusion of Chris Martin, New Zealand’s regular in Test Cricket. Although Chris Martin has found decent success in seaming conditions, his batting skills are perhaps the worst in the cricketing world with averages of less than 3.00 in both forms of the game! He will be sharing the new ball attack with Shane Bond.
New Zealand have gone with Brendon McCullum’s brother Nathan McCullum, an off spinning all rounder. Nathan McCullum is the third spinner in the side along with Vettori and Jeetan Patel. There is also a second wicket keeper in the team in Gareth Hopkins who has played 5 ODIs for New Zealand.
New Zealand Squad : Daniel Vettori (Captain), Lou Vincent, Ross Taylor, Peter Fulton, Gareth Hopkins (Wicket Keeper), Craig McMillan, Brendon McCullum (Wicket Keeper), Nathan McCullum, Jacob Oram, Jeetan Patel, Bradley Scott, Shane Bond, Mark Gillespie, Chris Martin, Scott Styris