One Last Show at the ODI World Cup For New Zealand's Golden Group

The last decade has been surreal for New Zealand. Often termed as the underdogs or dog horses, New Zealand has turned a corner in recent times. Their record in World Cups statistically is pretty good with New Zealand consistently making the knock-out stage.

New Zealand’s first win though in the knock-out stage only came in 2011. Ever since then their fortunes have changed. Starting with Brendon McCullum’s leadership a strong core was formed around him Ross Taylor, Danial Vettori and a bunch of juniors.

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Tim Southee started in 2008, and Trent Boult started in 2011. Together the duo carried the bowling attack for a decade across formats. Matt Henry, Ish Sodhi, Mitchell Santner, and Lockie Ferguson joined them in the next few years to complete the attack.

In the batting front, Kane Williamson joined in 2010 and is now their best batter across formats. Tim Southee and Trent Boult too are statistically among the top five in their countries history.

Williamson, Southee and Boult were all their in 2015 and 2019. Boult was the joint leading wicket-taker in 2015 and the one who bowled the Final over and Super Over against England in that heart-breaking Final. The last eight years have been gold for them. Two World Cup Finals and a T20 World Cup Final are among their big achievements. The biggest achievement though that came for this group was winning the WTC Finals, giving them their first ICC Trophy.

Coming into the tournament, Williamson and Southee are still looking for fulll fitness, showing how much New Zealand value their experience. Along with those two and Boult, the likes of Devon Conway, Matt Henry, Daryl Mitchell, Mitchell Santner, Jimmy Neesham and Ish Sodhi pack a lot of experience as well.

Neesham is another who has been through the tough for New Zealand. He stood at the non-strikers end as Martin Guptill was run-out with the scores level after the Super Over in the Finals. Later, he played a crucial cameo to get New Zealand to the T20 World Cup Final in 2021, only to see them stumble yet again. The group stuck together though.

Now, with 12 of the 15 past 30, and majority of the side having been together over the last generation a sign of change and nostalgia comes in. While some may make it to 2027, their are no guarantees as we could be seeing the last of some glorious careers