Kane Williamson, while speaking at the captain's press conference, said that they don't focus on what people call them and try to focus on cricket.
New Zealand beat India to lift the ICC Test Championship and were runners-up in last year's T20 World Cup, but still, they are more often than not ignored while talking about the favourites in every global tournament.
"Yeah, I mean, we don't really have a choice in what people call us, but for us, we came here and try and focus on the cricket that we want to play and address what's in front of us," Williamson said at the captains' press conference here on Saturday. The Kiwi skipper added that everyone has different tags, but in big tournaments, anything can happen.
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"We had a pretty memorable World Cup a few months back and played these guys in the final. It was a great game of cricket, and these sorts of tournaments are always pretty special to be a part of. Everybody has different tags and rankings that go up and down throughout the year, and I suppose they end up with different names. But you come here in tournament sport on any day, anything can happen, especially looking across all these teams with match winners throughout."
There is no reason at all to underestimate Kiwis. They have been runners-up in both the 50-overs World Cup and last year's T20 World Cup. They may not have global T20 stars up their sleeves, but they play as a strong unit and that is what has worked for them all this while. New Zealand will open their campaign against defending champions Australia in Sydney on October 22.
Full Squad:
Kane Williamson (c), Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Mitchell Santner, Glenn Phillips, Jimmy Neesham, Daryl Mitchell, Adam Milne, Martin Guptill, Lockie Ferguson, Devon Conway, Mark Chapman, Michael Bracewell, Trent Boult, Finn Allen.
