We will play hostile with the ball, McCullum warns Indians

India will have to contend with some hostile and aggressive fast bowling in the first one-dayer, New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum warned on Saturday. 

The hosts have an impressive attack, consisting of five fast bowlers — Mitchell McClenaghan, Tim Southee, Kyle Mills, Adam Milne and James Neesham.“We are leaning towards a full-pace bowling attack at this stage, but we will take a call only after seeing how everyone pulls through training. It will be quite nice to unleash a bit of pace in this opening game and try and be aggressive and hostile as we can with the ball in hand,” said McCullum. 

He added that he expected a “pretty big score in this game” even as he has bowlers who can make life tough for the Indian batsmen. “If we get a quick wicket anywhere, we will look to play Adam Milne. He is young and is slowly gaining experience, but he can really work up good pace that can bring about injuries. We want to use him when the conditions suit him best.

“But we have other options as well, in Kyle Mills and Tim Southee who are more than capable of bowling with the new ball. There is room for an all-pace attack and it is an aggressive bowling line-up. They have played quite a bit of cricket, so we have to manage their work load accordingly.”

While pace is the weapon-of-choice against the Indian batsmen, at the same time, the Kiwi batsmen will be looking to intimidate the visitors’ bowling as well, particularly when their attack is not known to shape up quickly irrespective of conditions. “Our approach against their bowling depends on the balance they go for. They are accustomed to playing on slower, turning tracks and hopefully they are not going to get that here,” he said.