If you’re a WWE fan, you’re probably familiar with the concept of the heel turn. If you’re not, simply put, that’s when a good person becomes a bad person. We have seen many such changes over the years. Before he became the famous superstar that he is today, The Rock was a happy-go-lucky wrestler who was completely underappreciated by the crowd. But once he took on the Brahma Bull and most recently Final Boss personas, he quickly struck a chord with fans.
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John Cena also shocked when he went heel during his retirement which captured the imagination of fans. Now you might be wondering what is the point of this cricket article? Well, for years, New Zealand have always been considered the right cricketers. Playing the game in the right spirit and winning hearts with spirited performances, it was rare to find the Blackcaps in anyone’s bad books.
However, this never turned into silver. Since 2015, the Blackcaps have reached four white-ball finals at ICC events, failing to win a single one.
So, when a reporter asked Mitchell Santner If the Blackcaps wanted to be the villains and silence the crowd in Ahmedabad on Sunday, you expected the usual response from the New Zealand captain.
You were expecting a media trained response where he would say they will want to play good cricket and hope to win.
Instead, we got the first sign of a heel turn that you would see from a WWE Superstar. An answer that made heads turn and if you are a fan of the Indian cricket team, gave you flashbacks of Pat Cummins’ press on the eve of the 2023 ODI World Cup final.
“Obviously it’s a challenge. Everyone knows we’re probably not favourites, but we don’t mind, we know we can, if we do our little things well and put in a strong team performance, you know, it puts us in a pretty good position to hopefully lift the trophy. But yeah, you could break your heart to lift the trophy for once,” Santner said.
It doesn’t mean that New Zealand will engage in any underhand tactics like we see in WWE. They will play their brand of cricket which is different from their usual one.
So can they finally end their wait for an ICC trophy after almost 26 years? Can they really silence the one-sided Ahmedabad crowd?
ALLEN AND SEIFERT – THE BROTHERS OF DESTRUCTION
Whenever you take the case of New Zealand, they have always had destructive batting at the top. You had the likes of Brendon McCullum, Martin Guptill and Jesse Ryder who were known for their aggressive starts.
But then there was always a bit of subtlety to temper that aggression. The likes of Stephen Fleming and Devon Conway brought a sense of calm to proceedings.
But right now they have two players who choose to strike first and think later. Finn Allen and Tim Seifert have formed a starting duo that can just take the game away from the opposition. If you have any doubts, just ask South Africa, who came through as favorites in the semi-finals. Allen and Seifert were electric at the New Zealand summit (Courtesy: AFP)
The duo put on a 117-run stand in just 55 balls to end the game and the tournament for the Proteas. In fact, they are third best for the Blackcaps in terms of runs as a duo.
Allen and Seifert put on 1015 runs in 24 innings at an average of 44.13. They had three century stands and five fifties, with the highest partnership of 175 coming in a match against the UAE in the group stages.
The current run on the team for both men was born out of second chances after having up and down career starts. But both men have honed their craft in various T20 leagues around the world to create an approach that works well with how the shortest format of the game is played.
SPIN DEPARTMENT TO ENVY
To be successful in the subcontinent, you need a spin department that can really make the batters dance to your tunes. Santner was almost like the second coming of Daniel Vettori in a sense. But there seemed to be a lack of support from the other side.
That’s when the Blackcaps found different options in their attack that won them games. It was almost a fluke for Cole McConchie in the tournament who was called up as a replacement for Michael Bracewell.
The question was always whether he could step in for Bracewell and deliver. And that’s exactly what happened. In the match against South Africa, he found his calling as a powerplay option against Quinton de Kock and Ryan Rickleton, dismissing both men.
Given how India’s top-order batsmen have struggled against spin in this T20 World Cup, McConchie is fast emerging as an option to battle the firepower early on.
Then comes Rachin Ravindra. We always knew that the Bengaluru-rooted man was a star of the future with the bat, but it’s his bowling performance that has stunned everyone. Rachin takes 11 wickets in T20 World Cup (Courtesy: Reuters)
There is no mystery when it comes to Rachin. Just simple and subtle variations that do the job. He has 11 wickets, the joint-highest tally by a New Zealand spinner in a T20 World Cup level with Vettori.
While some may feel that India’s left-handed batsmen could destroy him, Rachin has three wickets and an economy rate of 8.44 in his battles against southpaws.
“For me, it’s just trying to make life as difficult as possible for the batter,” Ravindra said. “That’s a change of pace, a change of seam angle, a change of angle, just doing little things like that.
Rachin was smart enough to keep things away from the strike arc of the left-handed batsmen, as we saw in the dismissal of David Miller.
Now add to that the presence of Glenn Phillips. There is enough variety in the spin department to trouble the Indian batsmen on their day.
Apart from the spinners, the presence of Matt Henry and Lockie Ferguson is another threat that can trouble India. Both men have amassed 15 wickets so far in the tournament and have the ability to go fast while bringing in variations that can work wonders in Ahmedabad.
So the stage is set for Sunday’s grand finale at the Narendra Modi Stadium. The Blackcaps have been the nice guys in cricket for far too long and this time they may decide to pull off the biggest stalemate in cricket and break the hearts of the crowd that turns up at the stadium to support India.
For a heel turn to work, timing is key. And for the Blackcaps, the time could be right now.
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Published on:
March 8, 2026 09:32 IST
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