The Unorthodox Kiwi Love for Aggression and International Cricket

The Unorthodox Kiwi Love for Aggression and International Cricket: Perhaps for the past few years, we have seen the magnifying rise of New Zealand as a stern cricketing nation. And majorly a bulk of these occurred after Brendon McCullum took over as the captain of the New Zealand Cricketing side. His aggressive drive in the captaincy coupled with a  bunch of young talents that emerged into the mainframes of New Zealand Cricket in the past couple of years in the likes of Kane Williamson, Luke Ronchi, BJ Watling, Corey Anderson, Trent Boult and others took New Zealand to an all new level full of intense aggression. This side is sure to prosper much in the near future as the players gain further international experiences.

The side led by McCullum did not manage to produce something massively ecstatic in the Champions Trophy, 2013. But since then, they have been on the rise. They have emphasized the focus on aggressive cricket that led to a cricketing boom in favour of them. Right in the series against West Indies in early 2014, New Zealand simply outplayed the Caribbean’s with their sheer aggression and also on this note, a mention has to be made of the fastest century of Corey Anderson which he scored off just 36 balls, a record then, which was broken by AB de Villiers an year later. New Zealand had a brilliant home series against India too in 2014. McCullum smashed some brilliant innings which included two triple centuries and the pure aggressive staunch made the opposition look nothing but hopeless.

This fire moves in batting, bowling, fielding and also in captaincy it got the Black Caps into commanding positions in the previous cricketing year. And as a matter of fact, the entire world admired the magnitude of brilliance shown by the Kiwis in the World Cup 2015. It was kind of a dream run for them. They emphasized on crushing the opposition, be it with the ball or bat or on the field. We have seen the oppositions getting bowled out on almost every match against New Zealand in the World Cup. Such emphatic charge led to intense amount of dominance which ultimately carved the path for victory for the Kiwis.

And out of such majestic dominance, came some mind-blowing performances like Guptill’s double century, McCullum’s heated onslaught, Boult and Southee’s demolition with the ball. In fact, McCullum maintained a strike rate of over 150 throughout the World Cup, followed by some extraordinary attempts on fielding which made the Kiwi’s cruise controller of the game. Also, McCullum’s brave captaincy moves and field setups contributed much to their success. Bowlers adopted the mentality of striking wickets rather than to resist run scoring. And the intent that is acts as a volatile force inside the players that makes them even more dangerous as a side. Players play with their roles assigned to them and come out on the field every time with a winning intent.

New Zealand were the runners up of the 2015 World Cup and in the recent series against England, they enforced subdue destruction and bounced back into the series with brute force. It was the positive and attacking approach which paid off for them in the second test. They were thoroughly aggressive with the bat in the second innings of the second test. It was one of the best instances of dominances in Test Cricket.

New Zealand Cricket, by their unorthodox aggression in all the formats of the game, is setting a trend and are on the verge of revolutionizing things. Their captain, Brendon McCullum has adapted ploys that are coping up decently well and contributes much to the team’s success rate. Like, McCullum in the ODIs goes for all hitting strategy. This involves risk as if he fails, the middle order gets under pressure but if he succeeds, which occurs on bulk of the occasions, New Zealand gets into a demolishing total. In addition to that, the aggressive setups on the field and also on the bowling put them ahead of the opposition. So far, these aggressive ploys clicked well for them and they are sure to bring ample success as their brigade gain further experiences to international level. The unorthodox aggression could definitely lead to an orthodox path and lead them to exponential success in the near future.