Abhishek Sharma may be giving bowlers all around the world nightmares but lead New Zealand pacer Matt Henry has a straightforward strategy for the Indian opener: keep him under pressure with unrelenting accuracy.
The Kiwis’ 50-run victory at Visakhapatnam in the fourth Twenty20 International was greatly aided by Henry’s dismissal of Abhishek for a golden duck.
“He’s been playing brilliantly over the last two years and he’s been taking to attacks, not just in international cricket but in IPL as well. I think for us it’s just about how you’re putting him under pressure,” PTI quoted Henry telling the media on the eve of the fifth and final T20I in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday.
“It’s challenging from a bowling point of view but the key thing is how do you come back when you have a mixed over, how do you have an impact on the game and not worry about those things? I think it all comes back down to accuracy. You have to be accurate at what you’re doing and you’re just trying to put your best foot forward,” he added.
Henry expressed hope that New Zealand would benefit from the experience of playing in India during the next T20 World Cup.
“For me, T20 cricket is about confidence…how do you keep coming back and challenging batters when you’re under pressure? How do you find a way to make it work? But if you keep turning up, you keep learning and I think that’s probably a highlight of this series for us.
“It’s never nice being put under that kind of pressure but we knew that the long-term picture was getting prepared for a World Cup and how do you put teams under pressure when they’re flying like that.
“So, it was all positive gains from our point of view and we’re just really pleased that the guys could still stay confident going into that last game. I think that is a true testament of character of the group,” Henry said.
Henry has been leading New Zealand in all three formats since Tim Southee and Trent Boult retired two years ago. Henry takes pride in his work, but he is also aware of the dangers that lie ahead.
“I think it’s obviously a big toll on the body. I think the scheduling of cricket is getting tighter and tighter as well so that presents different challenges. We’ve got some young guys getting some new experiences here and we’ve got other guys that have been here too. From my point of view, it’s great having a well-balanced squad. In terms of us all three forms, it’s great to be able to have so much depth,” he elaborated.
However, Henry felt adamant that in order to keep up with today’s batsmen, bowlers would need to use T20 variations.
“How do you, I suppose, get the batters to make a mistake when things are probably in their favour? So you’re just trying to, I suppose, whether you’re playing on the crease, creating variations, changing your pace but as I said it’s all about variations,” he said.
