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A wrecker-in-chief in his own right but New Zealand's explosive batter Glenn Phillips admits he can't even dream of belting some of the outrageous shots that World no.1 Suryakumar Yadav do with so much of ease.
It will be a battle to watch out for when, India's flamboyant batter Suryakumar will lock horns with New Zealand's shortest format's ace Phillips in the second T20I at the Bay Oval on Sunday (November 20). Phillips has a very fond memory at the Bay Oval ground where he clobbered 46-ball hundred.
"He (Surya) is absolutely incredible. The things that he does I wouldn't even dream of doing. I would love to try but we have very different games. The wrist strength that he's got to be able to hit balls for six in extremely awkward areas is a talent you rarely see," Phillips was quoted as saying in stuff.co.nz.
Phillips also mentioned that the "high risk-high reward game" that is played by him and Surya also keeps opposition in the game as they have the danger of getting out if some of those adventurous shots aren't executed properly.
"I have got my strengths and he has got his and we go about our jobs in different ways. And the way we both play presents opportunities for the opposition to get us out as well. It's part of the risk and reward of middle order cricket in T20."
Surya has been world's top run-getter in the 2022 calendar year with whopping 1040 runs at an average of 43 and a magnificent strike-rate of 186.
Phillips is eighth in the ICC's T20I batters' list and has scored 650 runs at a strike-rate of 158 plus.
Phillips is fearing that on good batting tracks like Bay Oval (Mt Maunganui) and McLean Park (Napier), Surya's strike-rate would soar even higher.
"I could easily see (Surya's) strike rate being even higher here than it was in Aussie, with the slightly smaller grounds and the pitches very similar, potentially a bit bouncier with a bit more grass on them. It's going to be very interesting what sort of strike rates we see here," he further added.
The series-opener in Wellington was abandoned due to inclement weather and the Indian players must be itching to get onto the park which, inarguably, has the most scenic backdrop.
India's squad: Hardik Pandya (captain), Rishabh Pant (vc and wk), Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav, Sanju Samson, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan (wk), Deepak Hooda, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Harshal Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umran Malik, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh
New Zealand's squad: Kane Williamson (captain), Devon Conway, Finn Allen, Glenn Phillips, Devon Cinway, Daryl Mitchell, Adam Milne, Michael Bracewll, Ish Sodhi, Mitchell Santner, Lockie Ferguson, Tim Southee, Blair Tickner.
