Indian opener Abhishek Sharma may be giving bowlers across the globe nightmares, but New Zealand pacer Matt Henry has a simple game plan to counter him: put the left-hander under continual pressure while maintaining relentless accuracy. Henry carried out his intentions flawlessly in the fourth T20I in Visakhapatnam, removing Abhishek for a golden duck, an early breakthrough that contributed significantly to New Zealand’s sweeping 50-run victory.
Despite the setback in the fourth T20I, India had already secured the series by winning the previous three games. The Men in Blue remain one of the most difficult teams to beat in the shortest version of the game, and they will enter the T20 World Cup 2026 as defending champions, determined to defend their championship on a global scale.
“For me, T20 cricket is about confidence…how do you keep coming back and challenging batters when you’re under pressure? How do you find a way to make it work? But if you keep turning up, you keep learning and I think that’s probably a highlight of this series for us.”
Matt Henry
“It’s never nice being put under that kind of pressure but we knew that the long-term picture was getting prepared for a World Cup and how do you put teams under pressure when they’re flying like that. So, it was all positive gains from our point of view and we’re just really pleased that the guys could still stay confident going into that last game. I think that is a true testament of character of the group.”
Matt Henry
Since Tim Southee and Trent Boult retired during the last two years, Matt Henry has led New Zealand’s bowling attack in all three formats. He takes pride in his duty, but he is also fully aware of the problems that come with it. Henry also stressed that in today’s T20 cricket, bowlers must continually rely on variety to keep ahead of aggressive batters.
“I think it’s obviously a big toll on the body. I think the scheduling of cricket is getting tighter and tighter as well so that presents different challenges. We’ve got some young guys getting some new experiences here and we’ve got other guys that have been here too. From my point of view, it’s great having a well-balanced squad. In terms of us all three forms, it’s great to be able to have so much depth.”
Matt Henry
“How do you, I suppose, get the batters to make a mistake when things are probably in their favour? So you’re just trying to, I suppose, whether you’re playing on the crease, creating variations, changing your pace but as I said it’s all about variations.”
Tim Southee
