A visibly tired Mitchell Santner yawned as he walked into the media centre ahead of New Zealand’s training session at the Gaddafi Stadium on Tuesday.
The last few days have been tiresome for the New Zealand skipper and his team, being made to shuttle between Pakistan and Dubai for their Champions Trophy group league fixtures. The Kiwis flew back to Lahore on Monday for the semifinal against South Africa.
Though he laughed off the issue, Santner admitted that with a quick turnaround time, the challenge for his team would be to ensure the bowlers are fit and fine ahead of the knockout fixture. “One-day cricket can be quite exhausting on the body, so, for us, today it might be about making sure the bowlers are ready for tomorrow. I can’t imagine they’ll be doing much today and will be just getting ready,” he said.
As the team trained for a couple of hours, the fast bowlers rested up while the batters worked with the throw-down specialist.
The Champions Trophy schedule has drawn flak from several stakeholders. With India playing all its league games and the semifinal in Dubai, it has been quite a bit of travel for the three other teams – Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.
READ: IND vs AUS: Why did umpire have a word with Shubman Gill after Travis Head catch during Champions Trophy semifinal?
However, Santner made it clear that with a packed calendar, scheduling could always be an issue. “Scheduling is an issue just all around. I don’t know what you can change with the heavy international schedule, franchise schedule and then trying to schedule ICC events. It can be quite a challenge,” he said.
“Logistically, it looks like a bit of a challenge at times, but I think everyone’s professional about it. As long as you’re ready for the game and making sure that recovery is quite important, we are good to go.”
Santner is hopeful that his team will reap the benefits of playing the tri-series here last month. “The surface looks good again,” he said about the Gaddafi Stadium surface. “Obviously, we played here in the tri-series and every game that’s been here has looked like a pretty good surface. We expect another one,” he said.
