World T20 Team watch: New Zealand vs Sri Lanka

The Black Caps would no longer love the underdogs tag come this World Cup not only for their tremendous run in the 50-over Cup last year, but for their ‘completeness’ in the squad. Every department looks threatening with matchwinners. Although, Brendon McCullum has hung his boots, slightly at a wrong time because his game is best suited for the shortest format, the Kiwis have potential game changers in skipper Kane Williamson, Corey Anderson, Martin Guptill, Grant Elliott and Colin Munro to name a few. 

The Kiwis would also want to bank on seasoned campaigner Ross Taylor in terms of rich experience. Their bowling has a right mix of experience and youth with Tim Southee, Mitchell McClenaghan, Adam Milne and Trent Boult forming a lethal pace-force. 

Their slow bowler, Ish Sodhi, Nathan McCullum and Mitchell Santner, would be keen to create a magic in friendly conditions. With four consecutive group stage exits in the shortest format, New Zealand would be itching to go all the way. In all, the Black Caps look to be the team to watch out for. 

The Sri Lankan side in 2016 is not a patch on the team that dominated the world for almost 10 years in all forms of cricket. Gone are the days when Sangakkara, Jayawardene, Jayasuriya, Muralitharan and Malinga combined to give their team innumerable wins in the One-day Internationals and T20s. 

Malinga is the only survivor from the formidable Lankan team but even he is not half fit so it is virtually a depleted side that the island nation has sent for the World Cup T20. 

Malinga is still the captain in  the shortest form but it remains to be seen how many matches he can play with his knee injury. Angelo Mathews, the captain in the other forms of cricket and he is the only competitive cricketer for the defending champions. 

Tillekeratne Dilshan and Tishara Perera are also shadows of themselves from the past, so it is an uphill task for Sri Lanka to get through to the semi-finals from their group. Their recent form also has not been encouraging as they have only won against UAE in the Asia Cup in Bangladesh.