NEWS
Follow UsIndia and New Zealand will take on each other from June 18 for the inaugural World Test Championship honours for which the Indians landed in England on Thursday. New Zealand, on the other hand, are competing in a two-match Test series against hosts England right now, which, many believe, would act as a warm-up for the all-important game.
Brett Lee also holds a similar view and reasoned that New Zealand might have an advantage over India in the final in Southampton as the Black Caps are more accustomed to conditions favourable for swing bowling.
"I think it is pretty evenly matched there. I am thinking though with the experience of New Zealand because they have bowled in conditions which are similar back home...," Lee told the ICC's official website.
"It may be conducive to fast bowling, to swing bowling. So that is where I think that the Kiwis might have an advantage purely from that fact. Now from a batting point of view, both sides have got batsmen that can play against swing bowling. But I think it comes down to bowling. I think whichever team bowls best will win the final."
One of the interesting sub-plot of an India-New Zealand match is the different styles of captaincy that Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson bring to the table. Lee feels Kane, despite being a conservative captain, has a great cricketing brain and thus the battle with Kohli will be interesting.
"Kane is a lot more conservative without being boring. He has got a great cricket brain. I admire his level of calmness. He is a conservative captain, but attacks when he needs to. Because he is patient, and it works for him and his team," the pace great said.
"And you look at Kohli, he is more of an aggressive captain. There is no right or wrong answer to any of these because I have played under captains who are conservative and captains who are too aggressive. But this is going to be a great opportunity to see which one comes out on top because they are different. So yeah, it is going to be exciting to see who comes out on top!" he said.