Latham banks on Karachi familiarity ahead of Champions Trophy opener

The perennial dark horses of an ICC tournament, New Zealand are eager to go one step further. Currently flying high, the New Zealanders come into the tournament with the tri-series victory under the belt. Having beaten Pakistan twice last week, they face the same opposition in the Champions Trophy opener with former ODI captain Tom Latham labelling it as a 'great occasion'.

Following the tri-series win, New Zealand chased down 305 against Afghanistan in the warm-up game as they continue to go from strength to strength. Latham felt the biggest positive was that all the squad members had a run-in and got some game time across the matches.

"I'm sure, the opening game of the Champions Trophy is really special, and to be playing against the host nation is going to be a great occasion", Latham said. "I guess if you look throughout the tri-series and the warm-up game, we've been fortunate enough that everyone throughout the squad has had some time in the middle, whether it be with the ball or with the bat.

"It's nice that we've been playing well, I think throughout the tri-series we were put under pressure in all three games and we obviously managed to overcome that and come out on the right side."

On the bowling side of things, captain Mitchell Santner and Michael Bracewell conceded only 58 runs in 20 overs in the tri-series final against the hosts, throughout the middle overs. And Latham duly credited the spinners for restricting the scoring rate and heaping the pressure on the opposition.

"Yeah, those guys [Santner and Bracewell] were fantastic through the middle. I guess in one-day cricket, if you're not taking wickets then you've got to be able to control the run rate, and I thought those two guys did it fantastically well... Mitch and Michael were able to control the run rate and put some pressure on that middle order. I guess in turn we managed to take some wickets towards the back end which was fantastic."

New Zealand arrived in Pakistan on February 3 in the lead-up to the tri-series and spent most of their time in Karachi, also sealing the tri-series win in the same venue. Latham admitted that understanding the conditions before any major tournament was vital to eliminate any surprises.

"I think any time you've been in conditions that you're coming up against is vital. I think we're lucky we've travelled here over the last couple of years and played Pakistan quite a bit since, probably over the last three years. I think for us It's always about trying to eliminate any surprises around conditions or surprise around teams that you come up against. I guess from both teams, Pakistan, and us, we've got information on each other."

Despite everything being on the upward trajectory, Latham mentioned that they haven't finalised their Playing XI yet while Lockie Ferguson's replacement Kyle Jamieson will be unavailable for the opening match.

"No, we haven't got an XI yet. We've obviously got training now and we'll come up with what the 11 will be. As you said, Kyle Jamieson is on his way over tomorrow, so he unfortunately won't be available for tomorrow's game, but will be available for the rest of the tournament."

Latham also gave a slight update on Rachin Ravindra, the all-rounder who suffered a nasty head injury after struggling to pick up the ball under the lights in the tri-series opener on February 8.

"He will train tonight so then we will get a bit more of an indication of how he's going. So, his recovery is obviously going well, but just need to make sure. It's obviously a pretty nasty injury. So especially, when you're involved with the head, you want to make sure things are right. So, yeah, just going through the protocols that he needs to go through and we'll wait and see."