New Zealand’s spinner Mitchell Santner admitted that the Black Caps have a “chaotic” start ahead of the T20 World Cup 2024 as they had to opt for extra training sessions due to logistics issues.
The New Zealand players arrived in their training camps in three batches due to their commitments in the Indian Premier League (IPL) but the team has started to settle in Trinidad after days of training.
"It's been a chaotic kind of start with people coming in at different times," Santner said. "It was nice to get home for a few days before travelling with the team to come over here, had a nice little time in Trinidad. One training kind of got rained out. But we are here now in Guyana, a good week or so to get some good prep done for our first game.
"They always put on a good party in the West Indies. I guess not having any warm-up games and guys coming in at different times, it kind of felt a little distorted. We are here in Guyana, we can really settle in with the tournament starting tomorrow. We can watch a little bit of start and then see what the pitches are going to do, especially in Guyana, and do our prep accordingly for our first game."
The World Cup will be played across nine different venues in the Caribbean and the United States and Santner believes that different conditions in the West Indies and the US will force teams to adapt to the situations.
"It's obviously good to watch [the first few games]. I think that's going to be a common theme in the World Cup, you know, different places will play very differently," he said. "Traditionally, Guyana can be a little bit slow and Trinidad can be pretty good. America is going to be different. So, teams have to assess and adapt quickly throughout the whole tournament.”
T20 World Cup 2024 groups
Group A: India, Pakistan, Ireland, Canada, United States
Group B: England, Australia, Namibia, Scotland, Oman
Group C: New Zealand, West Indies, Afghanistan, Uganda, Papua New Guinea
Group D: South Africa, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Netherlands, Nepal
