Wellington’s Sky Stadium was set to host the 1st T20I of the 3-match series between New Zealand and India, but the start of the play got delayed due to rain. Sky Stadium is an interesting venue as it hosts multiple sports, and Ish Sodhi has talked about the challenges of bowling here.
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The persistent rains in Wellington delayed the start of the match, and the rest of the forecast is also not looking great for the day. New Zealand have almost retained the same team as the T20 World Cup for this series, apart from Trent Boult, who has been dropped from the side.
New Zealand’s wickets have always been pace-friendly, but the duo of Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi have certainly made their mark. Both of them have been the ace players of the Blackcaps’ white-ball squad, and they will play a huge part in this series as well.
Ish Sodhi believes Sky Stadium Wellington boundary size will influence spinners
Wellington’s Sky Stadium is a multispeciality venue, and apart from cricket, sports like football and rugby are also played on this very ground. So, the dimensions of the stadium are also very unique as compared to other cricket stadiums around the world.
New Zealand’s leg-spinner Ish Sodhi also agreed that it is very unique to bowl at this very stadium due to its different boundary dimensions. He said that there is not much turn on this wicket, and the square boundaries are also very small as compared to the straight boundaries which make the job of the spinners a lot more challenging.
“This is a very unique place to bowl Not much turn, short square boundaries compared to the straighter ones. Varying the line has been an important part of our planning as a spin bowling unit on this ground,” Ish Sodhi said to the broadcaster.
“Bowling the wide line when you need and try and get them to hit to the straighter boundary has been in our discussion for a long time and potentially got us a few wickets.”
Talking about his partnership with Mitchell Santner, Sodhi said that they have formulated a pretty good partnership with Santner, and they know when to switch between attacking and defensive bowling.
