WELLINGTON
\nIndia will play fearless cricket in the limited-overs series in New Zealand while remaining tactically flexible, coach VVS Laxman said on Thursday.
\nThe beaten semi-finalists of the recent T20 World Cup in Australia will clash in Wellington on Friday in the first T20 International of the three-match series.
\nTheir batting approach in the World Cup looked conservative, especially seen against eventual winners England\u2019s swashbuckling cricket that, many believe, is the new way to play the 20-overs format.
\n\u201cIn the T20 format, you are required to play with that freedom, with that fearless attitude,\u201d Laxman, substituting head coach Rahul Dravid who has been rested after India\u2019s World Cup campaign, told reporters.
\n\u201cBut at the same time, it\u2019s important to assess the condition and situation and play to fulfil the needs of the team.
\n\u201cI think it\u2019s also important to be flexible.\u201d
\nIndia have also rested regular captain Rohit Sharma, top-order batter Virat Kohli and opener KL Rahul from the New Zealand tour.
\nFor Laxman, England\u2019s T20 success underlined the importance of having multi-dimensional players, especially bowlers who can bat.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s already been proven in T20 cricket that more number of bowlers who can bat adds depth to the batting and it allows a lot of freedom to the batsmen to go out and express themselves.
\n\u201cThat\u2019s the need of the format and I\u2019m sure more and more teams will try to get that into their selection process,\u201d added the former Test stalwart.
\nNew Zealand batting coach Luke Ronchi said going ballistic from ball one regardless of conditions was not a sound idea.
\n\u201cSometimes people think you need to go all guns blazing every single game, but … in a World Cup, there are used surfaces, there are new surfaces, there are different conditions in front of you.
\n\u201cNot only the Indians, we did it, a lot of teams actually play what\u2019s in front of them and sometimes it means you actually have to be a bit more conservative in the way you approach games.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WELLINGTON India will play fearless cricket in the limited-overs series in New Zealand while remaining tactically flexible, coach VVS Laxman said on Thursday. The beaten semi-finalists of the recent T20 World Cup in Australia will clash in Wellington on Friday in the first T20 International of the three-match series. Their batting approach in the World […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-296147","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n